Financial Meltdown

Seeing all the losses in the financial markets this week made me hope for something.

I hope that people at all levels of the game become more responsible.

What do I mean by "responsible"? I will illustrate with some examples of irresponsibility: selling sub-prime mortgages that many people wouldn't be able to afford; creating, selling, and buying the securities backed up by these types of mortgages; the government not regulating or outlawing these kinds of mortgages & securities; buying a house one cannot afford, except if the housing market stays hot.

It's like there was a collective notion of, "Hey, we shouldn't be doing this, but it looks like it's working, and nobody is telling us we can't, so let's go with it for as long as we can. Maybe somehow it'll all work out." Perhaps in the future our financial system will be more prudent.

There is no free lunch after all - everybody ends up paying, unless you are really good at trading stocks, bonds, funds, derivatives, etc., got out when the getting was good, have a golden parachute from the investment bank you helped run into the ground, or have had your money in fixed rate CDs/GICs (or in a mattress) all these years.