Replace the word “Spam” with “Spend” in the great Monty Python anthem and, by George — or should I say by Barack– I think you’ve got it.
As the country embraces yet another hundreds-of-billion-dollar spending plan coming out of Washington, I’m sitting here scratching my head, asking why? There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what Washington – both sides of the aisle, mind you – is doing to move things along and fix our sagging – need I say near-depression — economy.
The economic news continues to be bleak and yet Congress and the other powers-that-be seem to be hell-bent on spending our way out of this mess. I understand the value of coming up with a solution to the healthcare problem, but I can’t understand the value of spending $850 billion on it with what seems to be little or no real research. It is important to fix this mess but spending recklessly is not going to solve the problem. It seems that all Congress wants to do is throw good, hard-earned taxpayer dollars after good, hard-earned tax payer dollars. It is really a nightmare of massive proportions.
And while they swipe the national credit card, Congress and the President talk of the evils of Wall Street and the need for increased regulation and oversight of the markets and everyone involved in finance.
Regulation that does something is, I believe, good, yet regulation for regulation’s sake is simply foolish. Clearly the system is broken and still there seems to be no good ideas that I have heard that will right the wrongs of the past. It seems that all we hear out of Washington is that we need more regulation and oversight, but nothing seems to be coming out of the Beltway except empty speeches and words with little or no meaning.
I have a number of ideas that will not necessarily right some of the wrongs of the past, but may help avoid a repeat performance.
1. Make hedge funds mark to market on a daily basis — as mutual funds do — and publish performance data.
2. Remove any and all conflicts of interest between auditors and the companies they audit.
3. Make investors take and pass investment knowledge tests before they are allowed to invest.
4. Make brokers and other investment professionals personally liable for transactions that cause their clients losses due to fraud or just plain bad advice.
5. Do not allow investors to only have long-only investments in their portfolios.
You may agree with some, none, or all of my ideas. I welcome your comments. The main theme of my suggestions is personal responsibility. If we force people to be responsible for their actions, the country will be a better place and we will avoid recklessness.
THINGS THAT DRIVE ME CRAZY
There are two things this week:
1. I hate going to a hotel that is dirty, disgusting and gross. This happened to me this week at the Sheraton in Needham, Mass. It was really bad; the sheets where ripped and stained, the bathroom floor was filthy and furniture was pretty beat up. Not to mention that there were tears in the wallpaper and the shower had enough patina on it to be considered for a photo example in Merriam-Webster. This is a hotel that I will never stay at again nor should you or anyone you know. It is simply terrible and not worth it at any price.
2. I don’t understand why supermarkets can’t just give us the best price for the products instead of always demanding that we use our “customer rewards” card in order to get the discount. Since we are “rewarding” the stores by spending our money there, can’t they reward us by giving us the best price/lowest price without having to register or carry something in a wallet or on a key chain? Aren’t we showing our loyalty by shopping there in the first place? Why is this not clear?
COMMENTS
The comments function is now working properly and I have only one thing to say about it: I will post any comment, good or bad, as long as the commenter provides his or her name. I will not post anonymous comments or those that use vulgarity or profanity – my mother reads the blog. Someone sent in a comment last week saying that my September 11th post was disrespectful to those who where killed. I did not post it because the writer did not provide a name. Had he or she done so, the comment would be up right now.