Financial Musings

  I cannot calculate how many people have asked me in the past week for my opinion about these historic events. Uncertainty and financial markets mix like oil and water, and this time around is no exception. I would like to add a calming voice to the current situation. There is a history of this sort of thing, and the financial world did not end. Most people do not realize that in the Savings and Loan bailout of the 1980’s, the government was able to recoup most or all of its investment, as I mentioned many blogs ago.  I do not want to minimize what has happened either.  The Federal government has taken on debt that some estimate may be as much as half a trillion dollars. That sort of thing will have far reaching repercussions. We are in uncharted waters, I think, but the ship is sound.

            I am fascinated by the mass psychology of tumultuous financial events such as the one we are currently in. I get impatient to know how it will all turn out, wishing I could fast forward to a more stable point in the future. Not just for the financial gain I would have by knowing the future (though if I’m daydreaming, there is no reason to leave out those sort of fantasies) but just to see who steps forward, who was right, who was dreadfully wrong. You can say a lot of things about the twenty-first century so far, but you can never call it boring.  I am also fascinated by the history of such events.  The decision of this government to bail out these institutions makes me wonder if the entire Great Depression might have been avoided if the government came in and supported the banks in 1929.  That is the most fascinating thing about all this.  Did we just avert the second Great Depression, or did we just guarantee its arrival?    

By Myron Gushlak