It use to be the classic response to the question, "Where's your homework? -- The dog ate it." Soon it will be, "Well teacher, it's sort of like this, the economy has just been getting me down and I had to get a second part-time job to help the family."Now this cynical view may or may not be real, it may just be a better sob story, however it could be. And the fact that it could be is going to expand the use of the economy as an excuse for everything.
Unprofitable businesses are laying off workers. So are less profitable businesses and even profitable businesses. Any and all business negotiations you enter into in the coming year will try and get some leverage out of the economic woes -- whether it has any validity in your specific case or not.
This is certain to breed some level of mistrust and add to the grim outlook we are seeing in most quarters. This will be just one more bit of stress we do not need. And who do you think is going to get the most mileage out of this excuse? Politicians -- that you can bet on.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-12-2008 @ 12:48AM
BHarrison said...
Congress was and is the MOST RESPONSIBLE PARTY for our national economic debacle. This entire crisis would have been totally averted . . . and would NEVER HAVE HAPPENED . . . IF Congress had: 1) required (via the Fed) that ALL mortgage applicants be fully pre-qualified for loans that they applied for, 2) performed their fiduciary responsibility in implementing basic and reasonable "oversight and regulation" of the FIs, corporations, and the markets via the Fed, the SEC, etc.
Congress even "relaxed" or let the previously existing "regulations" expire in response to the requests from the special interests.
By "selling out" to the special interests groups (the FIs - Financial Institutions, the markets, and the corporations), CONGRESS ENABLED the orchestration and perpetuation of the pyramid and Ponzi schemes that created the "phony, worthless financial investments".
And those Congressmen/women who VEHEMENTLY FOUGHT AGAINST and VOTED AGAINST the critical "oversight and regulations" were Ms Pelosi, Mr. Reid, Mel Martinez (R-FL), and the most infamous of all Bareny Frank . . . and these are NOW the CONGRESSMEN WHO ARE "LEADING" THE RECOVERY EFFORTS. We now have the "foxes in charge of the hen houses . . ." Nothing is going to change until we get the CORRUPT Congressmen/women out of Congress.
Congress is the MAIN, PRINCIPLE CULPRIT is this economic debacle. Nothing will or can change until INTEGRITY is restored to our business enterprises . . . and these INEPT,INCOMPETENT and/or CORRUPT Congressmen are simply not capable of achieving that.