THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

A man was trampled to death while working at Wal-Mart. This poor guy had the unfortunate task of having to open the doors the morning of 'Black Friday'. There was such a commotion the metal door frames were crumpled in as the bargain-hungry mob pushed towards the door. Once the floodgate opened, a temporary worker named Jdimytai Damour caught the brunt of it.

Three other people, at this location alone, were injured including a woman 8 months pregnant. 8 months pregnant? Why would someone in that condition be out in that chaos in the first place? Here's the best part...although injured, the woman continued shopping then went to the hospital for treatment.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Christmas meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus? Surely some individuals in this mob are Christians or members of some religious sect. So to celebrate this miracle, these holy deal-desperate consumers are out before sunrise and have no trouble stomping a man to death to get what they want. The news reported that after he was trampled and it was announced that the injury would result in the store's closing for an undetermined amount of time, shoppers were quite irritated and continued to finish their quest for the perfect gifts. While the EMT's were trying to save the dying man, people continued to rush by him, in and out of the store, without any concern, but with a laser-beam focus on what they were after. Amazing.

This is not the only store in America to have a trampling or fighting customers. I know this type of holiday shopping madness has gone on for many years. People fighting in stores over stuff like Elmo dolls and PlayStations. Try and picture the joy a mother has on Christmas morning watching her chilld open that gift and scream with delight, all the while knowing she got into a full-on fist fight to take that toy from another woman. Is she proud of that? Is that what people consider acceptable behavior?

I'm completely dumbfounded by this social phenomenon. I guess it grows more and more fascinating to me as people are clinging harder and faster to their religious beliefs and are so quick to pass judgement on others all in the good name of God. Once again, it seems to me the majority of religious people are only religious when it suits their immediate needs. Hungry Hungry Hippo-crits.

To me, if we all just followed the Golden Rule, the world would be a better place. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat other people the way you want to be treated. It's so simple. That crosses all religious and political barriers. I can't think of any valid argument anyone could possibly come up with to contradict that single theory of human kindness. I believe it's the secret to world peace.

Until then, I guess a part of society's definition of 'normal' will be the American consumer who proudly says "I stomped on a man's face today with my boots and killed him, but I got 30% off this flat screen TV...Happy Birthday Jesus!"

Peace

ECONOMIC ILLUSIONS

I'm a big fan of optical illusions. For instance, the picture above...a menacing skull of death or two jesters sitting together enjoying champagne. I love artists and photographers who see things and objects in different ways than most. It's wonderfully eye-opening to me. Never fails to put a grin on my face or even illicit an "oh that's cool" comment as well.

Economic illusions however, not so much. I was driving to work this morning listening to the news, and analysts and experts are talking about college tuitions rising whenever the economy drops. Proponents calling for lower tuitions in tough times and raising admission costs during economic upswings. So I started to think about these alleged tough times we're all in now.

I find it astonishing that in the last 6 months we have seen the Federal National Mortgage Associaction (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), AIG, Bear Stearns, Shearson Lehman, some of, if not the biggest players in the finance and investment industry, countless banks, and now the American Auto Industry, all hit the skids. All needing billions upon billions of dollars from the US Government tax dollars, aka you and me. Pretty incredible timing, don't you think?

To me this all started with Fannie and Freddie, which have been having problems for years now, and were created by our not-so-financially-savvy government. Fannie Mae was created in 1938 in the wake of the Great Depression. The collapse of the housing market discouraged private lenders from investing in home loans. Fannie Mae was set up to provide banks with federal money to finance mortgages to raise levels of home ownership and the accessiblity of affordable housing. Fannie Mae was able to borrow money from foreign investors at low interest rates because of the financial support they received from the US Government which is what allowed Fannie Mae to provide fixed interest mortgage with low down payments. Fannie Mae made a profit from the difference between the interest rates homeowners pay and foreign lenders charge. Sounds simple enough.

For the first thirty years they held a veritable monopoly over the secondary mortgage market. In 1968 due to fiscal pressures created by the Vietnam War, Lyndon B. Johnson privatized Fannie Mae in order to remove it from the national budget. Here's where the illusions start. At this point Fannie Mae began operating as a government sponsored enterprises (GSE) generating profits for stock holders while enjoying the benefits of exemption from taxation and oversight as well as implied government backing. Pretty sweet deal. In 1970 Freddie Mac was created to offset the monopolization of the market. Another illusion since they were both basically one in the same. Together they control about 90% of the nation's secondary mortgage market.

In 2002 the assets of those two companies combined for a total 45% greater than that of the nation's largest bank. On the other hand, their combined debt was equal to 46% of the national debt. This is when things went awry. Congress, the Justice Department, and the SEC stepped in, finally, to examine the financial practices of these GSE's. They are the only two Fortune 500 companies not required to inform the public about any financial difficulties they might be having, though in the event of the collapse of either of these companies, US taxpayers could be held responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in outstanding debts. That arrangement seems grossly autonomous to me, in that, they're using taxpayer dollars but don't have to divulge anything to the taxpayer. In 2002 the SEC and and the Justice Department uncovered accounting errors at Freddie Mac to the tune of 4.5 to 4.7 billion dollars resulting in the termination of three top executives.

From my perspective, the whole mess was brought about by creative financing and leveraging. Many people crunching their own budget have tried likewise. The difference here is that instead of going in and cutting back on expenses way back when, like the rest of us do when our budget is tight, greedy overpayed executives that had gotten very comfortable in this secluded and lucrative arrangement continued to operate at breakneck salary levels with the bottomless pit of financing known as tax dollars...so reveals the illusion.

A few months ago we experienced a fuel shortage. Fuel prices shot through the roof and SUV's were automotive pariah. Come to find out, there wasn't really a fuel shortage, just the illusion of a fuel shortage. The stock market slides, fuel prices are chopped in half, and everyone can drive happily. But there remains a garage shortage of sorts since the housing industry has tanked. All of the sudden, Americans can no longer afford to house themselves and foreclosures are rampant. People crying to the Government to step in, lower their mortgage commitments and interest rates, and let them keep their suddenly unaffordable home. All of this burden again falling back on the taxpayer. The taxpayer that can't afford gas, college, or their house. Hmmm.

How much of this economic crisis and recession is real and how much is illusion? I'm no Wall Street genius by any stretch of the imagination. I am, however, blessed with a limitless amount of common sense. My biggest pet peeve is people who complicate things that aren't complicated. Executives making 10, 15, even 20 million dollars a year are now crying about the financial problems of their companies and scuttling to Washington for a portion of this 700 billion dollar golden calf. Ridiculous.

Perhaps there is something I am missing here. I listen to and read everything I can to try and get a common sense understanding of this conundrum but I continually come back to basic greed and spending of dollars that don't exist.

So is this financial crisis being experienced throughout the world a menacing skull of financial death or merely two jesters sitting together enjoying champagne? One thing is clear, America is fueled by illusion...and of that fuel, there will never be a shortage.