Shortly after moving to Florida I began taking note of things that are different here than they are up north where it snows during the winter. Below is my take on Christmas in Florida.
Every once in a while you have one of those strange moments in Florida where you realize, "I've never done that before." Here are some of mine that have happened over the Christmas season.
I have never...
Spent all day outside the day after Thanksgiving in 75 degree weather wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops.
Gone swimming outside in 80 degree weather two days after Thanksgiving.
Gone Christmas shopping while wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops.
Decorated the Christmas Tree and almost knocked it down because my shorts got caught on one of the branches.
Had the realization that the only snow I might see this year may be from visiting up north over the Christmas holiday (I'm perfectly fine with that one by the way).
Had the realization that the only time I may have to wear a winter coat is when I visit up north over the Christmas holiday.
Hoped I don't forget to pack my winter coat when I visit up north over the Christmas holiday.
Slept through the night during the Christmas season without having to run the heat.
Gone to church dressed like Magnum PI.
Had the windows open during the Christmas season so a fresh cool breeze could come in from outside because it was getting too warm inside with the windows closed.
Watched the ornaments on the Christmas tree sway back and forth from the wind generated by the ceiling fan.
Had the thought, "Hmmm, I wonder if I would enjoy having some Christmas ornaments that had mini chimes on them, so when the ceiling fan blew on the Christmas tree you could hear soothing tones."
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Todd calls Warren Buffet
The following is a fictional telephone conversation. I made it up for comic relief when we were going through the financial downturn back in 2008-2009. It started out as an email conversation between myself and others and then my twisted humor reared it's head.
Person #1 writes:
I want to ride motorcycle. I need 70's! Perhaps I'll ride in Florida...or to Florida. Hum????
Person #2 writes:
Harley Davidson is requesting a federal bailout. Maybe you can get a cheap new motorcycle for your ride, and a jacket to go with it.
I respond:
Ring Ring... Ring Ring... Hello
Ummmm... Yeah. Uh... Hi!
I'd like to request a federal bailout?
Person #2 writes:
Buffet to the rescue. Maybe you should ring him up.
I respond:
Ring Ring... Ring Ring... Hello
Um, yeah. I'd like to speak to Mr. Buffet.
Yeah, I can wait.
Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait
Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait
Um, Hey! Mr. Buffet! Wow! I actually got you on the phone? I figured you'd be way too busy for a small time investor like me.
Well, I tell you, the reason I called is... you know this economy downturn stuff... Yeah, I've always been a responsible person, paid my bills on time, stayed out of trouble, you know?
Well anyway, if all these other people in the world would have just been responsible like myself, well heck, I could have probably made a million off the stock market a long time ago. Instead, just about the time I make any money the market tanks and I get body slammed because of all these idiots in the world screwing everything up with their irresponsible ways. I just thought since I have been the responsible one that maybe I should get a bailout too.
Yes, I own a property. Ummm. No, actually I've never missed a payment. Well.... I seem to be getting by alright, but... but... but...
Meet the proper criteria? What criteria?
Need to be the CEO of a company going bankrupt? Must have lousy business practices? Need to have ignored investors and workers at my company and paid myself a 20 million dollar bonus every year I ran the company further into the ground?
But wait, if I did that wouldn't I already have a million? All I need is a measley million. That's not too much to ask is it? That's chump change for you. I mean, after all that money you gave to Bill Gates?
What do you mean what am I talking about? Yes you did, it was on the news practically every day for a month.
What? No money? Wait a minute, I thought you were the richest man in the world.
You don't have a dime? Now what do you mean? I hear your name on the news all the time and... yeah... um... what? Margaritaville?
OOOOOOhhhhhhh, this is JIMMY Buffet I'm talking to!
Well, Mr Buffet, If I had any money left I'd give it to you too. By the way, why don't you pour me one too while you're at it.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
"Why Am I On This Planet?" Chapter 1 - Life is a Choice
The material below was taken from a book I wrote titled, "Why Am I On This Planet?" Since I currently own the copyrights and this chapter directly applies to my article on Financial Armageddon I have decided to post this chapter to my site.
CHAPTER ONE
LIFE IS A CHOICE
Life is nothing but a continuous decision making process from start to finish. Through the decisions we make in life, we hold the power to make our dreams come true, or to cause the world around us to topple over and crush ourselves. Many of the choices we make in life usually affect more of our life than we realize. By tapping into God when we face a decision, we have the power to see what can transpire as a result of our decisions. God will reveal to us the consequences that can take place from any decision we are about to make. This can ultimately lead us to the correct decision to make regarding any circumstance. Through God's help, we have the power to make all the choices that are right for our lives, but the first choice we must make is to include God in our decision making process.
Many people don't realize just how much the choices they make affect their life and the lives of those around them. We can choose to be responsible in our decision making, or we can take the lazy way out. It is all too easy to disregard many of the consequences of the choices we make, or to even acknowledge that any consequences exist. We go on as if we are just going through another daily routine. As the day passes, we can easily accept the views of negativity that this world throws at us. We could choose to believe that our life is just a bunch of years that are strung together, with each year having three hundred sixty five days of those average daily routines. We could choose to believe that each day of our life is just another ship sailing by. We could choose to believe that there is no meaning to life other than our own immediate concerns. We could choose to believe that there is no way we could make a difference in the lives of the people around us. We could choose to believe that the things spoken of in the Bible are not true, or maybe they are true and they are just not attainable. We could choose to believe that the Bible only applies to people who lived thousands of years ago, and that it doesn't apply to life in today's world. We could choose to believe that the Bible was written by a drunken bunch of bums, whose sole purpose was to confuse the rest of the world for eternity (alright, maybe that one is stretching it a bit). On the other hand, we could choose to have faith and believe that everything that the Bible speaks of is attainable because, after all, the Bible is God's word to man. When an honorable person gives you their word you know that they aren't lying. How much more honorable can you get than God himself? Everything that God's word says is the truth, and the keys to life are all inside just waiting for us to discover them. All it takes is a little bit of positive attitude instead of negative. All it takes is faith, and faith is a choice that we make to believe in the Bible or the fact that God even exists. The choice to believe in God and the Bible is a choice that holds the largest determining factor of how our life will play out. If we choose to believe in God, and include him in our daily decision process, we hold the answer to life in the palm of our hand. But first, we must choose to apply God and the Bible to our life. We must choose to believe and act upon what we believe.
One example of how our choices can affect the world around us is the approach that my wife and I take to our marriage. After we were married, many people said to us, "Just wait, in a few years your marriage flame will burn out and everything will get old real fast." I can't recall how many people said that to us before we got married. It seemed like everyone was being negative about marriage. They told us that after our first six months together we would start getting tired of being around each other. Six months passed and they all said to give it another six months. Then two years passed and they were all saying it would happen any day now. Three years, and four years pass and they are all saying the same doom and gloom story. We were in Williamsburg, Virginia one year and a lady asked my wife if we were on our honeymoon. You should have seen how surprised she was when she found out we were celebrating our fifth anniversary. Six years pass, seven years, and eight years, and now we are approaching our ninth year of marriage and we still act like a couple of love birds. I wonder if all those people that sung the old doom and gloom story are wondering what is wrong with us or why we aren't changing? It's really very simple. When my wife and I married we made an agreement to never treat each other like an old worn out pair of gym shoes. We both agreed to do whatever it takes to keep the flame burning inside our marriage. So far we have accomplished our goal and it gets easier as each day passes. It wasn't always easy. Many times the old selfish human nature kicked in and we weren't considering each other's thoughts or feelings. But when reality hit us, we remembered that we made a commitment to each other. We talked out our problems, forgave each other, called it a learning experience, and moved on.
One of the things we still do is go out for an evening and paint the town red just like when we were dating. So if you get out of bed one day and look out your window and see red cars, red houses, red trees, and red bushes you will know that my wife and I were passing through your neighborhood the night before. As we focus on what God wants out of us it helps us to keep our marriage in the right perspective. It isn't what you get out of marriage that makes it work, it's what you put into your marriage. I am extremely thankful for the love that makes our marriage tick. That love that is beyond all measure. The love that God puts inside of us for each other. As long as God is the center of our marriage we will always have that special something that makes our marriage wonderful. We would never have had as great a marriage as we do now if we had not made the choice to keep God the center of our marriage, or the choice to be committed to keeping the spice in our marriage.
I happened across another example of choices we make in life that affect the world around us one day as I was watching television. A popular news and information program was doing a story on a lady who had been on a recent talk show. This talk show was definitely your typical talk show format. They had this lady set up real good. They had the lady express her personal beliefs against placing children in a day care center. The people who ran the talk show purposely invited a bunch of people who were strongly in favor of day care centers. They love to try and make people squirm. This is their distorted view of entertainment. The lady stated many very good reasons she was against day care, and how the choice to put children in most day care centers can have a negative impact on a child and can drastically change the way a child learns and grows. Of course, all the women in the audience who were in favor of day care centers took this lady too personally, as if she was saying their children were terrible kids. They began lashing out at her saying things such as, "How dare you judge the decisions we make!" The lady was trying to show them how the decisions they make can affect their children's lives. The audience continued to tear into her until she finally drove home her point. She asked the audience this question. "Suppose you had the opportunity to choose. Disregard your personal beliefs of your present situation, and the financial aspect of feeling that your extra income is necessary. If the power were totally yours to choose during your own childhood, how many of you in the audience would choose to have been raised in a day care center rather than in your own home?" Not one person in the audience raised their hands or had a reply. The point she went on to make is that as we look at things through a different perspective, starting at the results and working back to the point where the decision is made, it makes it easier for us to make better decisions for ourselves and our children.
That is precisely what God does when we include him in our decision making process. As we take our situation to Him, He shows us a bigger picture. We now can see the whole forest instead of just the trees around us. When we see the big picture, we see the direction we should be heading, This is what helps us make the correct decision for where we are currently at. If we become consciously aware of the fact that every day we can make a choice about something in our lives, whether it is how we choose to react to other people around us or whatever the case, we can realize that we have more control over our outlook on life and the direction our life is headed than we may think we have.
We can choose to attempt this life on our own, or we can choose to walk through this life with the help of our Heavenly Father. If we can establish a true relationship with God, built on love and trust in God, we can talk with God and share our concerns and struggles in life. We then can receive from God the support and encouragement that each one of us need as individuals. Once we come to know God as He truly is, the bond that occurs between us and God is a bond so strong that virtually nothing can brake it. By developing such a relationship as this with our Heavenly Father, we are in effect taking control of our life and locking in our eternal destiny to be directed towards God.
God has a specific purpose for each of our lives. But, God is also a gentleman. He allows us to choose whether we will or will not follow after His will for our life. God wants to know if we are willing to seek his plan for our life, even if it involves some sacrifice. Are we willing enough to make the decision to seek after God's will for our life? Are we willing enough to allow God to work in our lives and transform us into who He wants us to be? Situations can change, people can change, forgiveness can take place, but in order for any changes to take place it must first start inside each of us individually. The situation will not change itself. Nobody else is going to change the situation for us. God wants us to take our situation to Him so that He can work with us to change our attitude toward our situation. That is where change begins to take place. That is where forgiveness begins to take place. That is where growth as an individual occurs. Life is a choice, and the choice is ours to make. The more we cast our cares upon God, the more we are able to operate in love and forgiveness, that's all the more we will grow in our knowledge of what life is really about. That is just that much closer we are to discovering why we are on this planet and what our purpose is in life.
So many times in life we look for someone to blame for why our life has turned out the way it has. Many people wonder if there really is a God or how God could allow certain things to happen to them. Other people choose to cast the blame for everything upon God thinking that if there truly was a God, He never would have allowed many of those things to happen. That is one of the biggest mistakes people make. It's not God's fault why our life has taken the course that it has. We bring many things upon ourselves just by the choices we make every day in life. Our life is also affected by choices that other people have made for us. For example, parents make many choices when their children are young which have a direct impact upon how the child's life turns out. God gave us a way of salvation through Jesus Christ, but He left the choice up to us whether or not we will serve him. If God wanted to save us all from a destiny of eternal damnation he could do it in a heartbeat. But God, being the loving father that He is, allowed us to choose whether or not we want to serve Him. God gave us the choice to serve Him or to serve the devil. We are all serving one or the other whether we want to or not. God also gave us the key to salvation through Jesus Christ His son. He sent Jesus into this world to live a life of perfection and to sacrifice his life for all of the sins of man by dying on the cross. When Jesus did this He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins so that we might obtain our salvation through accepting Jesus Christ as our savior from sin. Then God gave us an instruction manual to help us through life and to answer all of our questions about life. God gave us the keys to the car and the instruction manual on how to drive. Then he gave us the choice of two separate roads to drive on. One road leads to Heaven and the other road leads to Hell. He lets us choose which road we want to take, and each road ends at the stopping point of our souls eternal destination. We are all driving somewhere in life. The question is, where do you want to be when the road in your life ends? If you are driving down the wrong road in life, just turn around and start driving down the right road which is the road to salvation. You will never regret the choice you made, especially when this life is over and your reward is Heaven.
God has a will or a purpose for every person in this world. It is up to us to find out what God's will is and make the choice to pursue God's will for our life. How do we know what God's will is for our life? How do we know we are not following our own selfish desires? We may not know what God's will is for us, but if we search our own hearts we will know whether the decision we are making is correct or not based on the feelings we display in our heart. If our decision is motivated by bad feelings then it is the wrong decision to make. Even though we may not know what God's will is, we can make our decisions by searching our hearts and eliminating the decisions motivated by bad feelings. Then, all we have left are the right decisions to make. You will know in your heart when you have made the right decision because you will have a good feeling in your heart about that decision. You will be doing the right thing for the right reason. The main thing to keep in mind is that we must make our decisions based on what God wants us to do. That may not always be something that we desire. Don't get me wrong. Everyone deserves to obtain the finer things in life and it is good to reward ourselves. We just need to be careful not to get caught up in our own greed or we will be heading down the wrong road.
ROMANS 4:23-25, 5:1,2
Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
II CORINTHIANS 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight:
GALATIANS 2:16-20
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
GALATIANS 3:11
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
EPHESIANS 2:8,9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
HEBREWS 11:1-6
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
PSALMS 34:8
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
MATTHEW 17:20
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
1 JOHN 5:11-15
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
CHAPTER ONE
LIFE IS A CHOICE
Life is nothing but a continuous decision making process from start to finish. Through the decisions we make in life, we hold the power to make our dreams come true, or to cause the world around us to topple over and crush ourselves. Many of the choices we make in life usually affect more of our life than we realize. By tapping into God when we face a decision, we have the power to see what can transpire as a result of our decisions. God will reveal to us the consequences that can take place from any decision we are about to make. This can ultimately lead us to the correct decision to make regarding any circumstance. Through God's help, we have the power to make all the choices that are right for our lives, but the first choice we must make is to include God in our decision making process.
Many people don't realize just how much the choices they make affect their life and the lives of those around them. We can choose to be responsible in our decision making, or we can take the lazy way out. It is all too easy to disregard many of the consequences of the choices we make, or to even acknowledge that any consequences exist. We go on as if we are just going through another daily routine. As the day passes, we can easily accept the views of negativity that this world throws at us. We could choose to believe that our life is just a bunch of years that are strung together, with each year having three hundred sixty five days of those average daily routines. We could choose to believe that each day of our life is just another ship sailing by. We could choose to believe that there is no meaning to life other than our own immediate concerns. We could choose to believe that there is no way we could make a difference in the lives of the people around us. We could choose to believe that the things spoken of in the Bible are not true, or maybe they are true and they are just not attainable. We could choose to believe that the Bible only applies to people who lived thousands of years ago, and that it doesn't apply to life in today's world. We could choose to believe that the Bible was written by a drunken bunch of bums, whose sole purpose was to confuse the rest of the world for eternity (alright, maybe that one is stretching it a bit). On the other hand, we could choose to have faith and believe that everything that the Bible speaks of is attainable because, after all, the Bible is God's word to man. When an honorable person gives you their word you know that they aren't lying. How much more honorable can you get than God himself? Everything that God's word says is the truth, and the keys to life are all inside just waiting for us to discover them. All it takes is a little bit of positive attitude instead of negative. All it takes is faith, and faith is a choice that we make to believe in the Bible or the fact that God even exists. The choice to believe in God and the Bible is a choice that holds the largest determining factor of how our life will play out. If we choose to believe in God, and include him in our daily decision process, we hold the answer to life in the palm of our hand. But first, we must choose to apply God and the Bible to our life. We must choose to believe and act upon what we believe.
One example of how our choices can affect the world around us is the approach that my wife and I take to our marriage. After we were married, many people said to us, "Just wait, in a few years your marriage flame will burn out and everything will get old real fast." I can't recall how many people said that to us before we got married. It seemed like everyone was being negative about marriage. They told us that after our first six months together we would start getting tired of being around each other. Six months passed and they all said to give it another six months. Then two years passed and they were all saying it would happen any day now. Three years, and four years pass and they are all saying the same doom and gloom story. We were in Williamsburg, Virginia one year and a lady asked my wife if we were on our honeymoon. You should have seen how surprised she was when she found out we were celebrating our fifth anniversary. Six years pass, seven years, and eight years, and now we are approaching our ninth year of marriage and we still act like a couple of love birds. I wonder if all those people that sung the old doom and gloom story are wondering what is wrong with us or why we aren't changing? It's really very simple. When my wife and I married we made an agreement to never treat each other like an old worn out pair of gym shoes. We both agreed to do whatever it takes to keep the flame burning inside our marriage. So far we have accomplished our goal and it gets easier as each day passes. It wasn't always easy. Many times the old selfish human nature kicked in and we weren't considering each other's thoughts or feelings. But when reality hit us, we remembered that we made a commitment to each other. We talked out our problems, forgave each other, called it a learning experience, and moved on.
One of the things we still do is go out for an evening and paint the town red just like when we were dating. So if you get out of bed one day and look out your window and see red cars, red houses, red trees, and red bushes you will know that my wife and I were passing through your neighborhood the night before. As we focus on what God wants out of us it helps us to keep our marriage in the right perspective. It isn't what you get out of marriage that makes it work, it's what you put into your marriage. I am extremely thankful for the love that makes our marriage tick. That love that is beyond all measure. The love that God puts inside of us for each other. As long as God is the center of our marriage we will always have that special something that makes our marriage wonderful. We would never have had as great a marriage as we do now if we had not made the choice to keep God the center of our marriage, or the choice to be committed to keeping the spice in our marriage.
I happened across another example of choices we make in life that affect the world around us one day as I was watching television. A popular news and information program was doing a story on a lady who had been on a recent talk show. This talk show was definitely your typical talk show format. They had this lady set up real good. They had the lady express her personal beliefs against placing children in a day care center. The people who ran the talk show purposely invited a bunch of people who were strongly in favor of day care centers. They love to try and make people squirm. This is their distorted view of entertainment. The lady stated many very good reasons she was against day care, and how the choice to put children in most day care centers can have a negative impact on a child and can drastically change the way a child learns and grows. Of course, all the women in the audience who were in favor of day care centers took this lady too personally, as if she was saying their children were terrible kids. They began lashing out at her saying things such as, "How dare you judge the decisions we make!" The lady was trying to show them how the decisions they make can affect their children's lives. The audience continued to tear into her until she finally drove home her point. She asked the audience this question. "Suppose you had the opportunity to choose. Disregard your personal beliefs of your present situation, and the financial aspect of feeling that your extra income is necessary. If the power were totally yours to choose during your own childhood, how many of you in the audience would choose to have been raised in a day care center rather than in your own home?" Not one person in the audience raised their hands or had a reply. The point she went on to make is that as we look at things through a different perspective, starting at the results and working back to the point where the decision is made, it makes it easier for us to make better decisions for ourselves and our children.
That is precisely what God does when we include him in our decision making process. As we take our situation to Him, He shows us a bigger picture. We now can see the whole forest instead of just the trees around us. When we see the big picture, we see the direction we should be heading, This is what helps us make the correct decision for where we are currently at. If we become consciously aware of the fact that every day we can make a choice about something in our lives, whether it is how we choose to react to other people around us or whatever the case, we can realize that we have more control over our outlook on life and the direction our life is headed than we may think we have.
We can choose to attempt this life on our own, or we can choose to walk through this life with the help of our Heavenly Father. If we can establish a true relationship with God, built on love and trust in God, we can talk with God and share our concerns and struggles in life. We then can receive from God the support and encouragement that each one of us need as individuals. Once we come to know God as He truly is, the bond that occurs between us and God is a bond so strong that virtually nothing can brake it. By developing such a relationship as this with our Heavenly Father, we are in effect taking control of our life and locking in our eternal destiny to be directed towards God.
God has a specific purpose for each of our lives. But, God is also a gentleman. He allows us to choose whether we will or will not follow after His will for our life. God wants to know if we are willing to seek his plan for our life, even if it involves some sacrifice. Are we willing enough to make the decision to seek after God's will for our life? Are we willing enough to allow God to work in our lives and transform us into who He wants us to be? Situations can change, people can change, forgiveness can take place, but in order for any changes to take place it must first start inside each of us individually. The situation will not change itself. Nobody else is going to change the situation for us. God wants us to take our situation to Him so that He can work with us to change our attitude toward our situation. That is where change begins to take place. That is where forgiveness begins to take place. That is where growth as an individual occurs. Life is a choice, and the choice is ours to make. The more we cast our cares upon God, the more we are able to operate in love and forgiveness, that's all the more we will grow in our knowledge of what life is really about. That is just that much closer we are to discovering why we are on this planet and what our purpose is in life.
So many times in life we look for someone to blame for why our life has turned out the way it has. Many people wonder if there really is a God or how God could allow certain things to happen to them. Other people choose to cast the blame for everything upon God thinking that if there truly was a God, He never would have allowed many of those things to happen. That is one of the biggest mistakes people make. It's not God's fault why our life has taken the course that it has. We bring many things upon ourselves just by the choices we make every day in life. Our life is also affected by choices that other people have made for us. For example, parents make many choices when their children are young which have a direct impact upon how the child's life turns out. God gave us a way of salvation through Jesus Christ, but He left the choice up to us whether or not we will serve him. If God wanted to save us all from a destiny of eternal damnation he could do it in a heartbeat. But God, being the loving father that He is, allowed us to choose whether or not we want to serve Him. God gave us the choice to serve Him or to serve the devil. We are all serving one or the other whether we want to or not. God also gave us the key to salvation through Jesus Christ His son. He sent Jesus into this world to live a life of perfection and to sacrifice his life for all of the sins of man by dying on the cross. When Jesus did this He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins so that we might obtain our salvation through accepting Jesus Christ as our savior from sin. Then God gave us an instruction manual to help us through life and to answer all of our questions about life. God gave us the keys to the car and the instruction manual on how to drive. Then he gave us the choice of two separate roads to drive on. One road leads to Heaven and the other road leads to Hell. He lets us choose which road we want to take, and each road ends at the stopping point of our souls eternal destination. We are all driving somewhere in life. The question is, where do you want to be when the road in your life ends? If you are driving down the wrong road in life, just turn around and start driving down the right road which is the road to salvation. You will never regret the choice you made, especially when this life is over and your reward is Heaven.
God has a will or a purpose for every person in this world. It is up to us to find out what God's will is and make the choice to pursue God's will for our life. How do we know what God's will is for our life? How do we know we are not following our own selfish desires? We may not know what God's will is for us, but if we search our own hearts we will know whether the decision we are making is correct or not based on the feelings we display in our heart. If our decision is motivated by bad feelings then it is the wrong decision to make. Even though we may not know what God's will is, we can make our decisions by searching our hearts and eliminating the decisions motivated by bad feelings. Then, all we have left are the right decisions to make. You will know in your heart when you have made the right decision because you will have a good feeling in your heart about that decision. You will be doing the right thing for the right reason. The main thing to keep in mind is that we must make our decisions based on what God wants us to do. That may not always be something that we desire. Don't get me wrong. Everyone deserves to obtain the finer things in life and it is good to reward ourselves. We just need to be careful not to get caught up in our own greed or we will be heading down the wrong road.
ROMANS 4:23-25, 5:1,2
Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
II CORINTHIANS 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight:
GALATIANS 2:16-20
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
GALATIANS 3:11
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
EPHESIANS 2:8,9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
HEBREWS 11:1-6
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
PSALMS 34:8
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
MATTHEW 17:20
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
1 JOHN 5:11-15
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
2008 Financial Downturn - The Brink of Financial Armageddon
Date of Origin: September 21, 2008
Revised: April 28, 2009
Subject: “The Brink of Financial Armageddon” or, “I Want to Short Sell You My Car”
Bullwinkle would have been proud of that title… ha!
“Honey, the ATM at the bank won’t work.” That’s what the man would have said to his wife in another week or two had it not been for Hank Paulson’s plan for the United States government to buy back all of the massive amounts of bad loans that are on the banks balance sheets and place a temporary stop to the short selling of financials on Wall Street. They did this in an attempt to stop the Stock Market from crashing, and it worked... for now. The real question is, "Is this just a temporary stop to what seems to be inevitable?" Will the Stock Market still crash, only to be a slow steady burn instead of a fast fiery blaze? The true answer does not lie in the efforts of the United States Government's attempt to prop up our economy. The answer to this question lies in the hearts of man, and our willingness, or not, to abide by our own self governing moral compass. So can our society accomplish this task? Can people who only seem to become more corrupt with each generation suddenly discover the path to responsibility? Good luck answering that one.
For no better reason, I have decided to start this article from when I was just a kid growing up in a small town in the United States of America during the 1970's. I like to call it Mayberry, USA. Here’s what has been happening over the years, as well as the turn of events in September, 2008 on Wall Street…
Back when I was a kid in the 1970’s, I paid attention. Why? I don’t know. I guess I was just like any other kid who wanted to know… “Why?” What I have seen in my lifetime is the most irresponsible, self centered, greedy generation that has ever (I presume) set foot on this planet. What I expect from the next generation is what I have concluded from watching past generations gradually go to more extremes. They will take it to the next extreme. During my lifetime, it all started back in the 1970’s with the introduction of the credit card. What? You mean there was a time when people didn’t live on credit cards? Yes, there was. And we only had three major networks and PBS and they all signed off at midnight. That means they shut off the switch and went to bed and the television screen just turned to a snowy fuzz until 6 am the next day when they signed back on. By the way, they played the national anthem just before signing off, and again right after they signed back on… rare. But anyway, the 1970’s were the last time the majority of the people in this world were financially responsible. Why? Because they had to be. That’s how the world worked back then. The only loan you had was for your house. Everything else you paid for with cash. If you didn’t have the cash, you couldn’t buy stuff.
With the introduction of the credit card it was easier for the common person without much means to buy things they wanted and “get it now.” They no longer had to wait until they had the money saved up, all they needed was a job and then a credit card. One by one people began to ring up bills on their credit cards, not even caring that they were getting jerked around on the interest rates and payback schedule. If all they ever did was pay back their minimum monthly payment over the full term, they would end up paying $15,000 to $20,000 for that $5,000 shopping spree they just went on. As irresponsible and greedy as the human race is the problem got gradually worse, and ten years later individual bankruptcy filing became the norm. Yes, there was a time when only companies, not individuals, filed for bankruptcy.
Later, instead of $5,000 on credit cards, people had $50,000 on credit cards. It took every dime they had to make their minimum monthly payments. If all they ever did was pay back their minimum monthly payment over the full term, they would end up paying $150,000 to $200,000 for that $50,000 shopping spree they just went on. The numbers got bigger, but the undisciplined spending habits remained the same. And when people were allowed to file bankruptcy and start over with a clean slate, it was only a matter of time before some greedy banker found a way to let those people have credit once again. Upon finally getting a good enough credit rating to get a bunch of credit cards again, guess what happened in the 1990’s. Yup, more and more bankruptcy filings. Hey, it worked before. Why not rack up a bunch of debt again? All you have to do is file bankruptcy and it all just disappears, right? Right now it's easy to blame Wall Street and Corporate executives for being greedy, but everyone is in this boat together. How many people do you know that have gotten greedy and had to have the best of everything the could get their hands on right now? But before I get too far ahead of myself let's first continue the story of financial irresponsiblity during my lifetime.
During this time of greed and lust on everyone's part the one thing people had was their homes, so many began to take out home equity lines of credit, and there instantly appeared a number of greasy banks that would give people a credit line up to 125 percent of the value of their homes. So now what do you suppose those irresponsible people did who grew up having no money, yet somehow found a way to get into a house? Yup, you guessed it. They got that 125 percent home equity loan so they could buy other things they couldn't afford. They spent all of that money along with racking up $100,000 on their credit cards. Hey, they just had to have that new car… and that big screen television… and that boat… and the best of everything… right? Even if they couldn’t afford it. They didn’t care, they just wanted to have fun, which led us to where we are now. So the next time you hear that the Government is the problem, realize that the Government is half of the problem, and that the immorality of society is the other half of the problem.
Because of the financial irresponsibility of this generation and their unwillingness to accept the moral responsibility of paying their bills, not to mention the greed of financial investors who maxed out their investment loans, massive amounts of houses began to be foreclosed upon. The amount of real estate for sale and the percent of the real estate that was financed accumulated to a point where suddenly there were no buyers for all of the properties that were on the market. Or if there were buyers they couldn’t get qualified for a loan because they had a lousy credit rating from all their years of iresponsible spending on their credit cards. Real Estate investors began to get stuck with too many properties they could no longer flip and sell for a profit, so that forced even more bankruptcies and more foreclosures. All of these bankruptcies and foreclosures left a massive amount of debt on banks balance sheets, so much so now that they could not just simply absorb that debt like they did back in the 1970’s. Now the banks had to find themselves being forced into bankruptcy like so many did during the 1980’s after the first wave of bad debt hit the system. So the next time you want to blame it all on the Wall Street bankers, realize that they are only half of the problem and the immorality of society is the other half of the problem.
When the market turned south in September, 2008 and all of the multi-billionaire investors on Wall Street began to see they could make money by short selling banks they began to do exactly that. What is short selling? It is the exact opposite of buying stock. Normally you purchase a stock and then sell it at a later date. Short selling is when you sell the stock first, and then buy it back at a later date to cover your sale. I’m not a fan of short selling, because I think the system would work just fine without it. Why I’m not a big fan… well, because I can’t go out and sell you anything else before I own it. Hey, I’ve got a brand spanking new car I’ll sell you… by the way, I haven’t purchased it yet myself. I’m going to buy it at a later date, but it will be yours for now. Hey, what am I thinking, I can’t do that? Yet, you can do it on Wall Street and there are many who argue that it is a vital part of the system. I say that’s a bunch of baloney, if I can’t sell a car before I buy it, no one should be allowed to sell a stock before they own it. But then, that’s just me being practical.
The reason that so many of the large investment firms collapsed back then was because they were sold short on Wall Street by greedy multi-billionaires who manipulate the stock market so they can make money. If you don’t believe they are that greedy and selfish, or capable of such market manipulation just ask yourself this question… Have I ever played the game of Monopoly with a cheater? Guess what, take off your rose colored glasses, not all of the world is good. There’s more evil here than you can shake a stick at and it has permeated society, yet most people when asked would say that the world in general is good. Lord only knows what that definition of good is. I say if the shoe fits… the shoe fits.
But hey, our society has taught us that we are alright… that everything is alright… that anything goes… if it feels good, do it… do anything you want to do. It’s all about you. Well this housing bubble is the perfect example of how life is not just about us and how the choices we make affect not only our lives, but the lives of many, many people. After all, somewhere at some time there was the first person to claim bankruptcy and our court system let them get away with it. That’s all our society needed to open the door… or rather, the gate. That’s an old farmers joke when all the cows had gotten out. Well now I see our housing market crash and I see people saying, “What’s going on?” From my perspective I like to say… “Who opened the gate?” The answer is, we all did.
Back to Wall Street. First of all when you get a mortgage to buy a house, the loan comes from your local bank, who then sells it to a national bank so the local bank can have the funds to sell another loan to another customer. The national bank then sells the loan to a brokerage firm who ends up keeping it. The collapse of these brokerage firms on Wall Street was brought about by two things. First, the irresponsibility of society, allowing bad loans to happen all for the sake of a fast buck. Most of these bad loans that were defaulted on were in the ownership of the brokerages on Wall Street. Now they had losses on their balance sheet because they bought bad loans that some bank had pawned off on them. Secondly, their collapse was brought about by short sellers on Wall Street. Had there been enough stringent rules on Wall Street (which there used to be but somehow over the years they just magically vanished) to keep short selling from getting out of control, there are many who believe this problem would have worked itself out of the system over time and never would have reached the extreme that it did. But because greed is greed, and a few multi-billionaires realized that if they began to beat down on a financial stock badly enough they could potentially make one of the biggest steals in the history of the stock market, naturally they said, “Let’s go for it.” It's all about me, right?
So how did they do it? First off, a financial company can only handle so much risky loans. The amount of risky loans they can handle is all based upon the value of their company. If the value of their company ever declined to a point where the company no longer had the value it needed to be able to handle the debt load on it’s balance sheet, the company would be downgraded on Wall Street and people who were not sellers of the company’s stock would now become sellers of the stock, thus pushing the stock down further. Eventually the stock would hit the point of no return, where the company did not have the means through their projected future earnings to be able to recover from the position they now find themselves in. What’s that you say? Cut them some slack? Give them time, give them a chance, they’ll pay it back? It’ll get worked out? Sorry buddy, that’s not how Wall Street works. From that point it gets easy for the short sellers. Just simply hold on and watch the company’s stock price retreat and watch the company fail. In fact, dance in the middle of the streets as you watch what you created happen, because after all, life is all about you and you’re making money hand over fist so by all means, party on, right?
Well, when these hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers, and multi-billionaire investors realized that the financials would probably recover if just given time, they were saddened because it meant that over time they would have to wait it out in order to make a really slow billion. But when they realized the financials were just close enough to the edge, and that they had enough means to start short selling the financials all at once and beat their stock price down by chasing all of the buyers away they saw just how much money could be made, billions and billions. They began short selling one financial at a time like bullies in the school playground to the point where the company was downgraded and was no longer capable of retaining their triple a quality rating, and could no longer be projected to have the means through their future earnings to be able to recover. This would push the company to the point of no return and they didn't even have to try anymore. The stock price just went down on it’s own from there.
You see, if the mega-investors would have bought the financials when they hit a true bottom back in July, 2008 they would have began making a slow billion over many years, and a lot of people would never have head of Hank Paulson. But when they saw that we were just close enough to the edge of the ravine, and all they had to do was sell short enough shares until the company was downgraded, they realized they could make billions and billions right now and not have to wait years for just one billion. So what did they decide to do? They snuck up behind the financial as it stood next to the ravine, and as the financial began to turn around… they pushed the financial over the edge of the ravine… all for the sake of a fast buck… by people who were already multi-billionaires… people who supposedly already have it all… yet they don’t mind pushing the entire world economy over the edge all for the sake of a fast buck right now. You can sum it up to two basic things… power and greed. Ask yourself this Mr. Mega-Investor. If in your attempt to make the fastest buck you ever earned you bankrupt the entire world economy, what good did you just do youself by pounding the economy into the ground and making your money useless as a result? Sure, you now have more of it, but all you can do is wallpaper a bigger room than the next guy.
Fortunately when Hank Paulson realized the short selling of financials was not going to stop he rounded up all the big shots in Washington DC for a number of emergency meetings, of which the final meeting came with a bi-partisan agreement on Capitol Hill to do whatever it takes to get the economy moving again. Paulson proposed a bailout plan of the banking system, just like the good old US Government did back in the 1980’s crunch… you remember… the first wave of bad debt that the US Government bailed us out of? At the same time the SEC finally steps in and bans the short selling of financials for ten days… and then talked that the ban on short selling financials may be extended longer than that.
What happened during this time is that the US Government started buying all of the bad loans on the balance sheets of all of the financials, thus leaving the financials with a clean slate… you know, kind of like the bailouts that people got for all those times over the years they filed bankruptcy. Guess who’s stuck with the bill… the taxpayers! But then, you could argue that’s who started the problem back in the 70’s when credit cards were issued. Hmmm, I guess we do reap what we sow. So the next time you're thinking about disregarding your moral compass, think about that one and think twice. But for now, temporarily you can rest assured, there will not be a run on the banks and we will not have another great depression. At least not for now, but it will come back around again someday in our lifetime. Remember it started in the 1970’s, then there was the crunch in the 1980’s. Then we got back on track only to start over doing the same thing again in the 1990’s, only to be faced with being on the brink of the great depression, part two in 2008. Guess what, the first one, the 1980’s was just a small wave. The second, this one, was a 50 footer surf’s up dude, Hawaiian wave that could have destroyed everything in it’s path with all the help it was getting from the big boys on Wall Street jumping up and down trying to make the wave even bigger. But for now the US Government seemingly snuffed it out. But when have you ever known government to get anything right? The next time this happens… hmmm… let’s just do the math… 1985 or so to 2008... Roughly 20 years… OK, now 2008 plus 20 years or so = 2030?
And that’s only the stuff caused by the selfish, fiscally irresponsible good ole’ (or rather… evil ole’) human race. I did not bother to include all of the financial irresponsibility of our good old congressmen and senators in Washington DC. Yeah, funny how they choose bipartisanship in September, 2008. Only when we were pushed to the brink of facing a global financial Armageddon, the Great Depression Part II, do they stop their political finger pointing, blame games and name calling. How immature and selfish. I didn’t mention the financial burdens on medicare and social security and who knows how many programs that are filled with pork to line the dirty back pockets of the world… and who knows what else. It may not even be 20 years before the next wave of bad debt… which will more than likely be a veritable financial tsunami caused by the next generation of financial irresponsibility… one of such massive size and strength there’s no way to stop it from happening.
What? Maybe I should run for President? Get someone in there who is one of us? Someone who gets it? Hey, I’m not that smart, I’m just a guy who sticks his finger in the wind to see which way I think it is blowing. I'm just a guy trying to better myself in a responsible, honest way. By the way, don’t tell me it isn’t possible for me to better myself. I started out life with a beat up old Chevy Nova that I bought from my brother for $500 and only about $500 in cash in my pocket. In college, I lived on peanut butter and jelly and hamburger helper and cookies in the mail from my sisters and mom. Somehow, class clown and all, I managed to make it to where I am today by being financially responsible and never having to file bankruptcy. Call it luck, call it reaping what you sow. Call it what you want, but at least I can enjoy life with a clear conscience.
Who am I? Yeah, I’m some guy who has all… who was handed all… was given a silver spoo… who never had anything hard… who… Nope, I’m not that guy. I’m just a regular guy who started out life as a bagger in a grocery store and has had it rough like everyone else, and is trying to pull himself up just like everyone else in this world. I just chose the path of financial responsibility and morality and followed after God. As a result God has blessed my life, in some ways with his intervention, and in other ways, by just teaching me the simple truths about this life… oh yeah… and I just happen to choose to apply those simple truths to my life rather than ignore them or choose not have any faith in the possibility of attaining a better life.
So what’s the point of all this? I really don’t know. I would like to say that I would hope to inspire people just to simply be more financially responsible after reading this article, but I’m also the kind of person who doesn’t believe that something like this article would ever make a hill of beans of difference in the world. I would also like to believe that this might just wake a few people up to the realization that we could be on the brink of the next Great Depression and that people might just wise up and get their lives straightened out, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking from a guy who actually gives a rip about society. Hey, the facts are the facts. We brought these financial problems upon ourselves twice in my lifetime, and we’ll more than likely do it again someday. A wise man would save and prepare himself for the future instead of sacrificing his future to buy the next bling thing to hit the market place.
By the way, my position on the Financial Rescue Package lies only in the fact that there seemed to be no other choice. It's the only thing that could have been done to stop the greedy short sellers from bankrupting America and the rest of the world. As fast as the market was heading south, in a very short time we would have been toast. Other than that, I don't support any move towards socialism. In retrospect, I now think maybe letting the financial system collapse might not have been a bad thing. We all need discipline somehow, and we can't discipline the spending habits of people if we keep bailing them out all of the time. Give a crying baby what he wants and you reinforce their behavior. They only cry louder and longer the next time until you give them what they want, or until you break them. Maybe our financial system needs to be broken to teach a few people a lesson or two. Maybe we need to get rid of the credit system and go back to the gold standard and cash system. After all, it worked back then and now it's not working. It's simple logic. If you don't have cash in hand, you can't buy anything. If you don't have credit, you can't run up bad debt and bankrupt society. Sure you should be able to get a loan for a house or property, but nothing else. And you have to put twenty percent down in order to buy the property. That way you have a vested stake in the property that you don't want to lose, which motivates you to pay your mortgage. By the way, that's how it used to be when I was a kid, and it worked.
Personally, I'm a believer that a global financial disaster is headed our way. No matter how it gets here, it's inevitably coming. After all, America and the rest of the world just put a giant band-aid on the problem and did not fix the problem. America nor any other country can fix the problem. Why? Because the problem lies in the greedy hearts of man and their unwillingnes to govern themselves with a moral compass. The only one that can fix that problem is Jesus Christ because he is the only one capable of changing the hearts of man. And since our society wants to thumb their nose at God and deny his existence, they will be content with this band-aid for now and continue on their merry little self centered, self gratifying lifestyles until the tsunami of financial disaster comes our way. Then they will cry out, "Why is this hapening?" DUH! It's plain and simple people. Society turned it's back on God and society is reaping what it has sown. God didn't inflict this upon us, we inflicted it upon ourselves.
This disaster was not caused only by Wall Street, evil bankers, or evil investors, although some portion of it surely was. This disaster was not caused only by the Obama administration, although the massive debt they keep adding to the pile will surely come back to bite us someday. This disaster was not caused only by the Bush administration, although some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused only by the Clinton administration, although some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused only by the first Bush administration, although some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused by the Reagan administration, although however much I may doubt it, some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused by the Carter administration, and while much of it probably could have been, more than likely only some of it may have been. Throw in a bunch more administrations and you can see that they all played a part, but the fault lies not with the Democratic or the Republican party. The fault lies within the hearts of man and his own personal greed and selfishness, and since both parties have some form of corruption, both parties whether it be on the level of the President, Governor, Senate or House of Representative level are responsible. The fault not only lies with politicians, Wall Street investors or bankers, it also lies with Main Street and every day people who choose greed over morality. Because when it comes right down to it man is responsible for his own problems that he inflicts upon himself.
And I sure would like to say that there are no evil people in this world, that we all just simply need to join hands and sing “Cumbaya,” or “Everything is Beautiful,” (or my personal favorite, the “Yahoo Do Re” song that all the Who’s in Whoville sang even though the Grinch stole all their Christmas presents) and that this will somehow magically make the world a better place if we do, but the truth is as long as there is evil in the hearts of man we will be forced to live with things like this happening. Truth is… I don’t even know why I wrote this… all I know is my mind started buzzing in the middle of the night with this story… and those who truly know me well, know that that’s a dangerously scary time for me where many truths have hit many bullseyes dead on. Don’t ask me why, it just happens that way. I like to think it’s just a little bit of insight, and my practical side coming through.
If anything, you at least know why we almost got smacked upside the head with a second Great Depression and you know how we might never see it in our lifetime if everyone chose to be financially and morally responsible… Yeah, and did I mention I have a new car I’d like to sell you? By the way, I haven’t bought it yet. I’m going to do that later. But I’ll sell it to you first. Trust me, you’ll like it, it’s a good car… Brand new. Just pay me for it now and I’ll buy it back from you later. Oh, and don’t pay any mind to those sirens you hear. They’re coming after somebody else.
Revised: April 28, 2009
Subject: “The Brink of Financial Armageddon” or, “I Want to Short Sell You My Car”
Bullwinkle would have been proud of that title… ha!
“Honey, the ATM at the bank won’t work.” That’s what the man would have said to his wife in another week or two had it not been for Hank Paulson’s plan for the United States government to buy back all of the massive amounts of bad loans that are on the banks balance sheets and place a temporary stop to the short selling of financials on Wall Street. They did this in an attempt to stop the Stock Market from crashing, and it worked... for now. The real question is, "Is this just a temporary stop to what seems to be inevitable?" Will the Stock Market still crash, only to be a slow steady burn instead of a fast fiery blaze? The true answer does not lie in the efforts of the United States Government's attempt to prop up our economy. The answer to this question lies in the hearts of man, and our willingness, or not, to abide by our own self governing moral compass. So can our society accomplish this task? Can people who only seem to become more corrupt with each generation suddenly discover the path to responsibility? Good luck answering that one.
For no better reason, I have decided to start this article from when I was just a kid growing up in a small town in the United States of America during the 1970's. I like to call it Mayberry, USA. Here’s what has been happening over the years, as well as the turn of events in September, 2008 on Wall Street…
Back when I was a kid in the 1970’s, I paid attention. Why? I don’t know. I guess I was just like any other kid who wanted to know… “Why?” What I have seen in my lifetime is the most irresponsible, self centered, greedy generation that has ever (I presume) set foot on this planet. What I expect from the next generation is what I have concluded from watching past generations gradually go to more extremes. They will take it to the next extreme. During my lifetime, it all started back in the 1970’s with the introduction of the credit card. What? You mean there was a time when people didn’t live on credit cards? Yes, there was. And we only had three major networks and PBS and they all signed off at midnight. That means they shut off the switch and went to bed and the television screen just turned to a snowy fuzz until 6 am the next day when they signed back on. By the way, they played the national anthem just before signing off, and again right after they signed back on… rare. But anyway, the 1970’s were the last time the majority of the people in this world were financially responsible. Why? Because they had to be. That’s how the world worked back then. The only loan you had was for your house. Everything else you paid for with cash. If you didn’t have the cash, you couldn’t buy stuff.
With the introduction of the credit card it was easier for the common person without much means to buy things they wanted and “get it now.” They no longer had to wait until they had the money saved up, all they needed was a job and then a credit card. One by one people began to ring up bills on their credit cards, not even caring that they were getting jerked around on the interest rates and payback schedule. If all they ever did was pay back their minimum monthly payment over the full term, they would end up paying $15,000 to $20,000 for that $5,000 shopping spree they just went on. As irresponsible and greedy as the human race is the problem got gradually worse, and ten years later individual bankruptcy filing became the norm. Yes, there was a time when only companies, not individuals, filed for bankruptcy.
Later, instead of $5,000 on credit cards, people had $50,000 on credit cards. It took every dime they had to make their minimum monthly payments. If all they ever did was pay back their minimum monthly payment over the full term, they would end up paying $150,000 to $200,000 for that $50,000 shopping spree they just went on. The numbers got bigger, but the undisciplined spending habits remained the same. And when people were allowed to file bankruptcy and start over with a clean slate, it was only a matter of time before some greedy banker found a way to let those people have credit once again. Upon finally getting a good enough credit rating to get a bunch of credit cards again, guess what happened in the 1990’s. Yup, more and more bankruptcy filings. Hey, it worked before. Why not rack up a bunch of debt again? All you have to do is file bankruptcy and it all just disappears, right? Right now it's easy to blame Wall Street and Corporate executives for being greedy, but everyone is in this boat together. How many people do you know that have gotten greedy and had to have the best of everything the could get their hands on right now? But before I get too far ahead of myself let's first continue the story of financial irresponsiblity during my lifetime.
During this time of greed and lust on everyone's part the one thing people had was their homes, so many began to take out home equity lines of credit, and there instantly appeared a number of greasy banks that would give people a credit line up to 125 percent of the value of their homes. So now what do you suppose those irresponsible people did who grew up having no money, yet somehow found a way to get into a house? Yup, you guessed it. They got that 125 percent home equity loan so they could buy other things they couldn't afford. They spent all of that money along with racking up $100,000 on their credit cards. Hey, they just had to have that new car… and that big screen television… and that boat… and the best of everything… right? Even if they couldn’t afford it. They didn’t care, they just wanted to have fun, which led us to where we are now. So the next time you hear that the Government is the problem, realize that the Government is half of the problem, and that the immorality of society is the other half of the problem.
Because of the financial irresponsibility of this generation and their unwillingness to accept the moral responsibility of paying their bills, not to mention the greed of financial investors who maxed out their investment loans, massive amounts of houses began to be foreclosed upon. The amount of real estate for sale and the percent of the real estate that was financed accumulated to a point where suddenly there were no buyers for all of the properties that were on the market. Or if there were buyers they couldn’t get qualified for a loan because they had a lousy credit rating from all their years of iresponsible spending on their credit cards. Real Estate investors began to get stuck with too many properties they could no longer flip and sell for a profit, so that forced even more bankruptcies and more foreclosures. All of these bankruptcies and foreclosures left a massive amount of debt on banks balance sheets, so much so now that they could not just simply absorb that debt like they did back in the 1970’s. Now the banks had to find themselves being forced into bankruptcy like so many did during the 1980’s after the first wave of bad debt hit the system. So the next time you want to blame it all on the Wall Street bankers, realize that they are only half of the problem and the immorality of society is the other half of the problem.
When the market turned south in September, 2008 and all of the multi-billionaire investors on Wall Street began to see they could make money by short selling banks they began to do exactly that. What is short selling? It is the exact opposite of buying stock. Normally you purchase a stock and then sell it at a later date. Short selling is when you sell the stock first, and then buy it back at a later date to cover your sale. I’m not a fan of short selling, because I think the system would work just fine without it. Why I’m not a big fan… well, because I can’t go out and sell you anything else before I own it. Hey, I’ve got a brand spanking new car I’ll sell you… by the way, I haven’t purchased it yet myself. I’m going to buy it at a later date, but it will be yours for now. Hey, what am I thinking, I can’t do that? Yet, you can do it on Wall Street and there are many who argue that it is a vital part of the system. I say that’s a bunch of baloney, if I can’t sell a car before I buy it, no one should be allowed to sell a stock before they own it. But then, that’s just me being practical.
The reason that so many of the large investment firms collapsed back then was because they were sold short on Wall Street by greedy multi-billionaires who manipulate the stock market so they can make money. If you don’t believe they are that greedy and selfish, or capable of such market manipulation just ask yourself this question… Have I ever played the game of Monopoly with a cheater? Guess what, take off your rose colored glasses, not all of the world is good. There’s more evil here than you can shake a stick at and it has permeated society, yet most people when asked would say that the world in general is good. Lord only knows what that definition of good is. I say if the shoe fits… the shoe fits.
But hey, our society has taught us that we are alright… that everything is alright… that anything goes… if it feels good, do it… do anything you want to do. It’s all about you. Well this housing bubble is the perfect example of how life is not just about us and how the choices we make affect not only our lives, but the lives of many, many people. After all, somewhere at some time there was the first person to claim bankruptcy and our court system let them get away with it. That’s all our society needed to open the door… or rather, the gate. That’s an old farmers joke when all the cows had gotten out. Well now I see our housing market crash and I see people saying, “What’s going on?” From my perspective I like to say… “Who opened the gate?” The answer is, we all did.
Back to Wall Street. First of all when you get a mortgage to buy a house, the loan comes from your local bank, who then sells it to a national bank so the local bank can have the funds to sell another loan to another customer. The national bank then sells the loan to a brokerage firm who ends up keeping it. The collapse of these brokerage firms on Wall Street was brought about by two things. First, the irresponsibility of society, allowing bad loans to happen all for the sake of a fast buck. Most of these bad loans that were defaulted on were in the ownership of the brokerages on Wall Street. Now they had losses on their balance sheet because they bought bad loans that some bank had pawned off on them. Secondly, their collapse was brought about by short sellers on Wall Street. Had there been enough stringent rules on Wall Street (which there used to be but somehow over the years they just magically vanished) to keep short selling from getting out of control, there are many who believe this problem would have worked itself out of the system over time and never would have reached the extreme that it did. But because greed is greed, and a few multi-billionaires realized that if they began to beat down on a financial stock badly enough they could potentially make one of the biggest steals in the history of the stock market, naturally they said, “Let’s go for it.” It's all about me, right?
So how did they do it? First off, a financial company can only handle so much risky loans. The amount of risky loans they can handle is all based upon the value of their company. If the value of their company ever declined to a point where the company no longer had the value it needed to be able to handle the debt load on it’s balance sheet, the company would be downgraded on Wall Street and people who were not sellers of the company’s stock would now become sellers of the stock, thus pushing the stock down further. Eventually the stock would hit the point of no return, where the company did not have the means through their projected future earnings to be able to recover from the position they now find themselves in. What’s that you say? Cut them some slack? Give them time, give them a chance, they’ll pay it back? It’ll get worked out? Sorry buddy, that’s not how Wall Street works. From that point it gets easy for the short sellers. Just simply hold on and watch the company’s stock price retreat and watch the company fail. In fact, dance in the middle of the streets as you watch what you created happen, because after all, life is all about you and you’re making money hand over fist so by all means, party on, right?
Well, when these hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers, and multi-billionaire investors realized that the financials would probably recover if just given time, they were saddened because it meant that over time they would have to wait it out in order to make a really slow billion. But when they realized the financials were just close enough to the edge, and that they had enough means to start short selling the financials all at once and beat their stock price down by chasing all of the buyers away they saw just how much money could be made, billions and billions. They began short selling one financial at a time like bullies in the school playground to the point where the company was downgraded and was no longer capable of retaining their triple a quality rating, and could no longer be projected to have the means through their future earnings to be able to recover. This would push the company to the point of no return and they didn't even have to try anymore. The stock price just went down on it’s own from there.
You see, if the mega-investors would have bought the financials when they hit a true bottom back in July, 2008 they would have began making a slow billion over many years, and a lot of people would never have head of Hank Paulson. But when they saw that we were just close enough to the edge of the ravine, and all they had to do was sell short enough shares until the company was downgraded, they realized they could make billions and billions right now and not have to wait years for just one billion. So what did they decide to do? They snuck up behind the financial as it stood next to the ravine, and as the financial began to turn around… they pushed the financial over the edge of the ravine… all for the sake of a fast buck… by people who were already multi-billionaires… people who supposedly already have it all… yet they don’t mind pushing the entire world economy over the edge all for the sake of a fast buck right now. You can sum it up to two basic things… power and greed. Ask yourself this Mr. Mega-Investor. If in your attempt to make the fastest buck you ever earned you bankrupt the entire world economy, what good did you just do youself by pounding the economy into the ground and making your money useless as a result? Sure, you now have more of it, but all you can do is wallpaper a bigger room than the next guy.
Fortunately when Hank Paulson realized the short selling of financials was not going to stop he rounded up all the big shots in Washington DC for a number of emergency meetings, of which the final meeting came with a bi-partisan agreement on Capitol Hill to do whatever it takes to get the economy moving again. Paulson proposed a bailout plan of the banking system, just like the good old US Government did back in the 1980’s crunch… you remember… the first wave of bad debt that the US Government bailed us out of? At the same time the SEC finally steps in and bans the short selling of financials for ten days… and then talked that the ban on short selling financials may be extended longer than that.
What happened during this time is that the US Government started buying all of the bad loans on the balance sheets of all of the financials, thus leaving the financials with a clean slate… you know, kind of like the bailouts that people got for all those times over the years they filed bankruptcy. Guess who’s stuck with the bill… the taxpayers! But then, you could argue that’s who started the problem back in the 70’s when credit cards were issued. Hmmm, I guess we do reap what we sow. So the next time you're thinking about disregarding your moral compass, think about that one and think twice. But for now, temporarily you can rest assured, there will not be a run on the banks and we will not have another great depression. At least not for now, but it will come back around again someday in our lifetime. Remember it started in the 1970’s, then there was the crunch in the 1980’s. Then we got back on track only to start over doing the same thing again in the 1990’s, only to be faced with being on the brink of the great depression, part two in 2008. Guess what, the first one, the 1980’s was just a small wave. The second, this one, was a 50 footer surf’s up dude, Hawaiian wave that could have destroyed everything in it’s path with all the help it was getting from the big boys on Wall Street jumping up and down trying to make the wave even bigger. But for now the US Government seemingly snuffed it out. But when have you ever known government to get anything right? The next time this happens… hmmm… let’s just do the math… 1985 or so to 2008... Roughly 20 years… OK, now 2008 plus 20 years or so = 2030?
And that’s only the stuff caused by the selfish, fiscally irresponsible good ole’ (or rather… evil ole’) human race. I did not bother to include all of the financial irresponsibility of our good old congressmen and senators in Washington DC. Yeah, funny how they choose bipartisanship in September, 2008. Only when we were pushed to the brink of facing a global financial Armageddon, the Great Depression Part II, do they stop their political finger pointing, blame games and name calling. How immature and selfish. I didn’t mention the financial burdens on medicare and social security and who knows how many programs that are filled with pork to line the dirty back pockets of the world… and who knows what else. It may not even be 20 years before the next wave of bad debt… which will more than likely be a veritable financial tsunami caused by the next generation of financial irresponsibility… one of such massive size and strength there’s no way to stop it from happening.
What? Maybe I should run for President? Get someone in there who is one of us? Someone who gets it? Hey, I’m not that smart, I’m just a guy who sticks his finger in the wind to see which way I think it is blowing. I'm just a guy trying to better myself in a responsible, honest way. By the way, don’t tell me it isn’t possible for me to better myself. I started out life with a beat up old Chevy Nova that I bought from my brother for $500 and only about $500 in cash in my pocket. In college, I lived on peanut butter and jelly and hamburger helper and cookies in the mail from my sisters and mom. Somehow, class clown and all, I managed to make it to where I am today by being financially responsible and never having to file bankruptcy. Call it luck, call it reaping what you sow. Call it what you want, but at least I can enjoy life with a clear conscience.
Who am I? Yeah, I’m some guy who has all… who was handed all… was given a silver spoo… who never had anything hard… who… Nope, I’m not that guy. I’m just a regular guy who started out life as a bagger in a grocery store and has had it rough like everyone else, and is trying to pull himself up just like everyone else in this world. I just chose the path of financial responsibility and morality and followed after God. As a result God has blessed my life, in some ways with his intervention, and in other ways, by just teaching me the simple truths about this life… oh yeah… and I just happen to choose to apply those simple truths to my life rather than ignore them or choose not have any faith in the possibility of attaining a better life.
So what’s the point of all this? I really don’t know. I would like to say that I would hope to inspire people just to simply be more financially responsible after reading this article, but I’m also the kind of person who doesn’t believe that something like this article would ever make a hill of beans of difference in the world. I would also like to believe that this might just wake a few people up to the realization that we could be on the brink of the next Great Depression and that people might just wise up and get their lives straightened out, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking from a guy who actually gives a rip about society. Hey, the facts are the facts. We brought these financial problems upon ourselves twice in my lifetime, and we’ll more than likely do it again someday. A wise man would save and prepare himself for the future instead of sacrificing his future to buy the next bling thing to hit the market place.
By the way, my position on the Financial Rescue Package lies only in the fact that there seemed to be no other choice. It's the only thing that could have been done to stop the greedy short sellers from bankrupting America and the rest of the world. As fast as the market was heading south, in a very short time we would have been toast. Other than that, I don't support any move towards socialism. In retrospect, I now think maybe letting the financial system collapse might not have been a bad thing. We all need discipline somehow, and we can't discipline the spending habits of people if we keep bailing them out all of the time. Give a crying baby what he wants and you reinforce their behavior. They only cry louder and longer the next time until you give them what they want, or until you break them. Maybe our financial system needs to be broken to teach a few people a lesson or two. Maybe we need to get rid of the credit system and go back to the gold standard and cash system. After all, it worked back then and now it's not working. It's simple logic. If you don't have cash in hand, you can't buy anything. If you don't have credit, you can't run up bad debt and bankrupt society. Sure you should be able to get a loan for a house or property, but nothing else. And you have to put twenty percent down in order to buy the property. That way you have a vested stake in the property that you don't want to lose, which motivates you to pay your mortgage. By the way, that's how it used to be when I was a kid, and it worked.
Personally, I'm a believer that a global financial disaster is headed our way. No matter how it gets here, it's inevitably coming. After all, America and the rest of the world just put a giant band-aid on the problem and did not fix the problem. America nor any other country can fix the problem. Why? Because the problem lies in the greedy hearts of man and their unwillingnes to govern themselves with a moral compass. The only one that can fix that problem is Jesus Christ because he is the only one capable of changing the hearts of man. And since our society wants to thumb their nose at God and deny his existence, they will be content with this band-aid for now and continue on their merry little self centered, self gratifying lifestyles until the tsunami of financial disaster comes our way. Then they will cry out, "Why is this hapening?" DUH! It's plain and simple people. Society turned it's back on God and society is reaping what it has sown. God didn't inflict this upon us, we inflicted it upon ourselves.
This disaster was not caused only by Wall Street, evil bankers, or evil investors, although some portion of it surely was. This disaster was not caused only by the Obama administration, although the massive debt they keep adding to the pile will surely come back to bite us someday. This disaster was not caused only by the Bush administration, although some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused only by the Clinton administration, although some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused only by the first Bush administration, although some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused by the Reagan administration, although however much I may doubt it, some of it may have been. This disaster was not caused by the Carter administration, and while much of it probably could have been, more than likely only some of it may have been. Throw in a bunch more administrations and you can see that they all played a part, but the fault lies not with the Democratic or the Republican party. The fault lies within the hearts of man and his own personal greed and selfishness, and since both parties have some form of corruption, both parties whether it be on the level of the President, Governor, Senate or House of Representative level are responsible. The fault not only lies with politicians, Wall Street investors or bankers, it also lies with Main Street and every day people who choose greed over morality. Because when it comes right down to it man is responsible for his own problems that he inflicts upon himself.
And I sure would like to say that there are no evil people in this world, that we all just simply need to join hands and sing “Cumbaya,” or “Everything is Beautiful,” (or my personal favorite, the “Yahoo Do Re” song that all the Who’s in Whoville sang even though the Grinch stole all their Christmas presents) and that this will somehow magically make the world a better place if we do, but the truth is as long as there is evil in the hearts of man we will be forced to live with things like this happening. Truth is… I don’t even know why I wrote this… all I know is my mind started buzzing in the middle of the night with this story… and those who truly know me well, know that that’s a dangerously scary time for me where many truths have hit many bullseyes dead on. Don’t ask me why, it just happens that way. I like to think it’s just a little bit of insight, and my practical side coming through.
If anything, you at least know why we almost got smacked upside the head with a second Great Depression and you know how we might never see it in our lifetime if everyone chose to be financially and morally responsible… Yeah, and did I mention I have a new car I’d like to sell you? By the way, I haven’t bought it yet. I’m going to do that later. But I’ll sell it to you first. Trust me, you’ll like it, it’s a good car… Brand new. Just pay me for it now and I’ll buy it back from you later. Oh, and don’t pay any mind to those sirens you hear. They’re coming after somebody else.
The NFL Needs New Overtime Rules
The NFL is a professional league striving to make football fair with instant replay and coaches challenges. Why do they have unfair overtime rules? A game decided by a coin flip is ludicrous. Under the current sudden death system all it takes for a team to win in overtime is to be the first team to score. A team can win the game in overtime on one posession, or even one play for that matter.
Football is offense, defense and special teams. Why not implement a simple professional solution that every fan and player will be satisfied with that is extremely fair to any teams strengths and weaknesses? Games are decided in quarters. Play one full 15 minute quarter of overtime. Each team will get their possession of the ball, probably even twice during the quarter. At the end of the quarter whoever is ahead wins. Regular season - If still tied at the end of full 15 minute quarter the game ends in a tie. Post season - Keep playing extra full 15 minute quarters until someone does win.
This solution will be fair to every player and coach and gives the fans something that is reasonable that they will like. Then no one will have to listen to all of the idiotic ideas of sports commentators. The NFL finally got instant replay right after an excrutiating twenty years of pain. Please, get overtime right... now. I think the current NFL overtime rules are total nonsense and it only makes me want Devin Hester on my team if they win the coin toss in overtime. The NBA & MLB got overtime/extra innings right. Anyone who says I'm wrong is a fan of the NFL's current overtime rules only because their team happened to win in overtime. Their team won the coin toss in overtime and drove forty yards to kick the field goal and win in less than three minutes of predictably boring action. But had the other team they were cheering against won the coin toss in overtime and kicked the field goal to win on the first possession that same person would think it was unfair.
This suggestion is not for the good of any one specific team, it is for the good of the entire league. Like I said, those who do not agree with me now will agree with me one day when their team loses on a coin flip. I think the Jerome Bettis Tails, Heads, Tails incident on Thanksgiving some years back as well as most every overtime game played proves my idea is a good one. When an NFL game goes into overtime, I turn the TV off and find out who won the next day.
Football is offense, defense and special teams. Why not implement a simple professional solution that every fan and player will be satisfied with that is extremely fair to any teams strengths and weaknesses? Games are decided in quarters. Play one full 15 minute quarter of overtime. Each team will get their possession of the ball, probably even twice during the quarter. At the end of the quarter whoever is ahead wins. Regular season - If still tied at the end of full 15 minute quarter the game ends in a tie. Post season - Keep playing extra full 15 minute quarters until someone does win.
This solution will be fair to every player and coach and gives the fans something that is reasonable that they will like. Then no one will have to listen to all of the idiotic ideas of sports commentators. The NFL finally got instant replay right after an excrutiating twenty years of pain. Please, get overtime right... now. I think the current NFL overtime rules are total nonsense and it only makes me want Devin Hester on my team if they win the coin toss in overtime. The NBA & MLB got overtime/extra innings right. Anyone who says I'm wrong is a fan of the NFL's current overtime rules only because their team happened to win in overtime. Their team won the coin toss in overtime and drove forty yards to kick the field goal and win in less than three minutes of predictably boring action. But had the other team they were cheering against won the coin toss in overtime and kicked the field goal to win on the first possession that same person would think it was unfair.
This suggestion is not for the good of any one specific team, it is for the good of the entire league. Like I said, those who do not agree with me now will agree with me one day when their team loses on a coin flip. I think the Jerome Bettis Tails, Heads, Tails incident on Thanksgiving some years back as well as most every overtime game played proves my idea is a good one. When an NFL game goes into overtime, I turn the TV off and find out who won the next day.
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