It always amazes me, that in good times business Leaders want nothing to do with governments, while in bad times business almost begs for help, and governments have no choice but to help out. Note this story, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7620127.stm , becoming all too common as of late, and more than likely to become more common place still.
Business can make bad decisions, bad investments, cut tens of thousands of jobs, incur massive financial losses, have CEO’s make absurd salaries, yet governments have to bail them out for the good of the economy.
I understand the situation, the economics, but my God, why do we reward failure so often in our society?
I support business and their right to make money, provided its legal, they pay taxes, and contribute jobs to a society, but I think we’ve gotten to the point in the past thirty years of looking at dividends and stock prices, (for our pension plans, and our other investments), that are the end all and be all of our society. It doesn’t matter just as long as my shares produce.
That is and will bite us in the ass. I’m certainly no economist, but I still think the worst is yet to come. The US has been running an economy on huge debts for over a decade, it has to stop. Who ever is elected President in the fall has some serious economic problems to address, problems that will effect the rest of the world for quite a few years.