Fear of the Unknown

I am sitting at my workstation aghast.  I simply can not believe that with the world insisting that the US Government act to curb the spreading credit contagion, that our government can not get past partisanship to create forward momentum.  This in the face of a complete shutdown of the credit system.  They simply let the bill die.  The US Government is fiddling while the entire economic system is on life support.  I have never been more ashamed, of the inaction and the morass of our political system.

So now we are into the unknown.  I liken it to the feeling one must feel when one finally jumps off a bridge to end their life.  There must be point where the din, and commotion of the world just disappears into the whisper of the wind running past your ears; and you wonder what comes next.  You are sure you are going to hit bottom eventually, but know you will never know what it feels like.   Mostly because no-one ever comes back to tell you.

My readers, we have just been pushed off the bridge by our own representatives.  No one really knows what comes next.  I follow about 20 different Wall Street and Banking analysts and none of them have any idea what happens to the credit markets without an implied US Government backstop.  This should worry every one of us.  We are perpetually going to be waiting for the other shoe to drop, mostly because no one knows where this all will end.

Our Moment is Here

Here is my position on our current economic situation as a nation, circa 2008.  The relief package currently before Congress is a bailout of the debt underlying the real estate we ALL participated in for years.  It is OUR problem, not some amorphous Wall Street character with a cigar and a Rolls Royce.  We ALL participated in the demise, and we ALL have to clean it up to maintain global economic legitimacy.  

I know.  It sucks, but the damned Buick is gonna get repo-ed if we don't go to the credit counsellor right now!!!  As a country.  We have to own this crisis and put a lid on it immediately.

I run a business and actively trade in the bond and equity markets.  I am a capitalist in the truest sense of the word.  It is one of the only things in my life that I can say I truly personify.  So trust me when I say that I am all for free and open markets.  But lets face it, all this growth?  All these excesses we have seen on every "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"-like show, that we secretly love to watch and attempt to emulate in our ever so personal ways?  All these things were courtesy of the credit we got drunk on for years.  WE ALL PARTICIPATED IN SOME WAY, and it is incumbent on us to contain, if not fix, this problem.

I like to think I get to see our economy in a very broad view, and I am adamant that without the US government making good on the mess that it's citizenry created, the world will see massive disconnections in inter bank, and more-so inter country credit.  Mostly due to eroding faith in the US Economic system which has long been the hub for the origination of credit and credit instruments.  This impacts EVERYONE, and the effect will be incredibly painful deflation of the value of every US asset available.  We will literally go backwards in time.  Main Street, Wall Street, hide your head in the sand ideo-logue (Republican leadership, shame on you) - street, no one will be spared.  You need credit to buy a car, send your kid to college, buy a house, basically, live your life.  It will be financial stasis, like a financial coma.  Look....its really going to suck if we don't do this.  For everyone.

Please call and urge your Representatives and Senators now and urge them to overcome the ideological gridlock and pass an appropriately sized Economic Relief package immediately!!

Eulogy for Robert Baker - Rest In Peace Bob.

My father in law died recently.  He was an outstanding man and a great example of hard work and fortitude.  Below is my tribute to him.

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Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935).
The Pilot

FROM the Past and Unavailing
Out of cloudland we are steering:
After groping, after fearing,
Into starlight we come trailing,
And we find the stars are true.
Still, O comrade, what of you?
You are gone, but we are sailing,
And the old ways are all new.

For the Lost and Unreturning
We have drifted, we have waited;
Uncommanded and unrated,
We have tossed and wandered, yearning
For a charm that comes no more
From the old lights by the shore:
We have shamed ourselves in learning
What you knew so long before.

For the Breed of the Far-going
Who are strangers, and all brothers,
May forget no more than others
Who looked seaward with eyes flowing.
But are brothers to bewail
One who fought so foul a gale?
You have won beyond our knowing,
You are gone, but yet we sail.

I found this poem from the Late 1800s to be quite a fitting tribute to Bob. It speaks of an unnamed Pilot. A pilot whose job it was to keep those in his charge safe from the ravages of the unrelenting sea. Now, after his passing they must carry on using the knowledge he passed down as a guide; knowledge that, while not immediately clear, comes to the writer as his experience demands it. And he realizes the Pilot was right all along.

We have tossed and wandered, yearning
For a charm that comes no more
From the old lights by the shore:
We have shamed ourselves in learning
What you knew so long before.

Bob always seemed to know that things work themselves out. He would always describe for me the long view and forever kept the best interests of those around him close to his heart. He was a Pilot in the truest sense of the word. He didn’t need a title, and he didn’t need to get a salute, he just needed to be heard.  

I listened to Bob for over 20 years. He used to tell me that I was too serious, and wondered why I would look so hard to see the difficulty in life. But it is only now that I realize that Bob knew that in the end, all we have is each other. In this way Bob lived his life. An example of steadfast resolve and the virtue of holding on to one’s principles.  

When I first met Bob, I will admit, I was trying to impress him. I loved his daughter with such a deep desire, I would have said and done almost anything to make him like me. As I spoke with him for the first time he could see I was looking for something we could have a common ground on. Bob saw this and put his hand on my shoulder and said “Every one of Leanne’s “friends” comes over here and tries to make himself look good. Tell me what YOU like Gerry.” So I did. For three hours. I talked about politics and World War 2 history (one of Bob’s favorite subjects). I felt at ease.

So today I look at that as my job; my final tribute to the man who continually told me to calm down and relax. Bob would want nothing more than for all of you to be at ease, and remember him for the way he helped smooth out the rough edges in our all to consuming lives. When you leave here today, and go home, sit down and watch a good movie, read a book, spend time with your children or perhaps enjoy a glass of wine. Our pilot knew what we do not. That life is too short, and that there is no time for all the complications we manufacture in our heads. Only the time you spend making others feel comfortable and at ease.

One who fought so foul a gale?
You have won beyond our knowing,
You are gone, but yet we sail.