#1, actually. Have been for a while. I think Saudi Arabia is 2nd and Mexico is 3rd. Venezuela is 4th or 5th...can't remember.
I believe saudi arabia, mexico, and venezuela are about the same (within like 5-10%), canada is almost double iirc
You make some good points here but in a Capital Budgeting function there is a fine line between greed and NPV maximization.
Many of my colleagues from school work for banks (both regional & national) in the credit/risk department. Typically banks have 3 primary departments: sales (mortgage broker), underwriting (Credit Analyst), and Executive (loan committee). Usually the loan committee will have representation from ownership, sales, and credit department to ensure all loan reviews have a balanced assessment.
There was a significant breakdown of this process in the mid 90’s to 2005ish, where Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac created inefficient markets for Sub-prime and Prime lending instruments. Essentially a bank could create large pools of loans, package them, and sell to these government supported entities. Banks no longer had an originate to hold mentality but an originate to sell philosophy. Credit & Underwriting departments took a back-seat to the sales teams in the lending review process. In some cases the Credit department’s compensation became tied to sales (conflict of interest).
It’s a complete breakdown of Government oversight, measurement of risk, and Corporate responsibility.
I'm not sure such a thing as a free market has existed in centuries and many would argue that is never has.
BIGxCountry
10+ year member
Nar Nar
it's all a conspiracy man
o. l. t.
10+ year member
The Audio Whisperer
The economy in a nutshell:
We've been living a lie. We've been spending money that is not there. We've been pretending it will come around. Forecasters have been inflating the market based on what they THINK the market will be like for supply and demand in the coming year. Also, day traders were buying and selling oil strategically to inflate the price for profits on their stock trading. Many Corporate CEO's owned oil stocks and helped push the prices up in strategic trading. Oil, unfortunately, can be purchased by ANYONE on the market and resold. Stock market day traders were the one's driving the oil prices, not Exxon (so much).
As long as everything stayed the same, everybody was golden living on imaginary money that nobody had (aka-credit). When the Forecasters drove gas prices through the roof it crippled America's spending because they spent everything they had on gas. When they stopped spending money on other things to pay for gas, the people vendors didn't sell what they needed to continue operating profitably and loans on more expensive things like cars and homes dropped. When the loans dropped, the banks and mortgage companies started losing money and you can only do that for so long.
So gas prices were through the roof, people weren't spending money on anything but gas, banks and other lenders suffered as a result, when one fell, the rest gave in as well and it acted like dominoes until we got to here.
In the end you can blame the dirty, underhanded future stock forecasters and the day traders buying and selling oil on the open market to inflate the price for their own profit for pushing gas prices up until people ran out of money.
We've been living a lie. We've been spending money that is not there. We've been pretending it will come around. Forecasters have been inflating the market based on what they THINK the market will be like for supply and demand in the coming year. Also, day traders were buying and selling oil strategically to inflate the price for profits on their stock trading. Many Corporate CEO's owned oil stocks and helped push the prices up in strategic trading. Oil, unfortunately, can be purchased by ANYONE on the market and resold. Stock market day traders were the one's driving the oil prices, not Exxon (so much).
As long as everything stayed the same, everybody was golden living on imaginary money that nobody had (aka-credit). When the Forecasters drove gas prices through the roof it crippled America's spending because they spent everything they had on gas. When they stopped spending money on other things to pay for gas, the people vendors didn't sell what they needed to continue operating profitably and loans on more expensive things like cars and homes dropped. When the loans dropped, the banks and mortgage companies started losing money and you can only do that for so long.
So gas prices were through the roof, people weren't spending money on anything but gas, banks and other lenders suffered as a result, when one fell, the rest gave in as well and it acted like dominoes until we got to here.
In the end you can blame the dirty, underhanded future stock forecasters and the day traders buying and selling oil on the open market to inflate the price for their own profit for pushing gas prices up until people ran out of money.
bigbangtheory
5,000+ posts
CarAudio.com Veteran
Fawking truth ^^^^^
I would disagree with your statement 85%, I believe greed/ambition is what drove American economic growth for the past 150 years.
Now I also believe in Corporate responsibility which balances greed with the best interests of their shareholders. Those who make investments and take risk should get both the reward and punishment depending upon the outcome. Those who speculated on real-estate should lose their shirt, businesses should be allowed to fail (cough GM) and those who break the law should go to jail.
"Greed is a word leftists use to describe what conservatives call ambition. Ambition and reward are what fuel prosperity in a market economy. When you impose penalties and restrict rewards on economic activity - such as by excessive taxation - however noble your motives, there are consequences. You get less work, savings, investment and output. If that weren't the case, we could tax ourselves rich. The fatal shortcoming of socialist economies is that they don't sufficiently reward excellence, so, predictably, they get less of it. It's that fundamental conflict with human nature that seals socialism's ultimate doom."
"Adam Smith summed it up nicely, more than 200 years ago, when he observed that in a market economy, people pursuing their own prosperity are inadvertently moved as if by an "invisible hand" to promote the interests of society as a whole. They do this by creating wealth - for themselves and, in the process, for others. Any society that becomes obsessed with restricting the accumulation of personal wealth will destroy initiative and creativity. The way the world works, if you want the poor to get richer, you have to make it possible for others to get richer, too. "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1411496/posts
Now I also believe in Corporate responsibility which balances greed with the best interests of their shareholders. Those who make investments and take risk should get both the reward and punishment depending upon the outcome. Those who speculated on real-estate should lose their shirt, businesses should be allowed to fail (cough GM) and those who break the law should go to jail.
"Leftists love to complain and they especially love to whine about "greed." They just don't get it. A market economy is based on incentives. The prospect of financial reward is what motivates most people to work, save and invest. There's nothing particularly ingenious about a system that recognizes this. It's intuitive. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith didn't invent an economic system; he merely observed and analyzed what people do naturally when left to their own devices."
"Greed is a word leftists use to describe what conservatives call ambition. Ambition and reward are what fuel prosperity in a market economy. When you impose penalties and restrict rewards on economic activity - such as by excessive taxation - however noble your motives, there are consequences. You get less work, savings, investment and output. If that weren't the case, we could tax ourselves rich. The fatal shortcoming of socialist economies is that they don't sufficiently reward excellence, so, predictably, they get less of it. It's that fundamental conflict with human nature that seals socialism's ultimate doom."
"Adam Smith summed it up nicely, more than 200 years ago, when he observed that in a market economy, people pursuing their own prosperity are inadvertently moved as if by an "invisible hand" to promote the interests of society as a whole. They do this by creating wealth - for themselves and, in the process, for others. Any society that becomes obsessed with restricting the accumulation of personal wealth will destroy initiative and creativity. The way the world works, if you want the poor to get richer, you have to make it possible for others to get richer, too. "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1411496/posts
o. l. t.
10+ year member
The Audio Whisperer
Fried chicken is good too, but eat it every day morning, noon, and night for a year and you'll drop dead. Just because there is good in it, doesn't mean it can't turn toxic.
Greed will make you into god and break you into a sinner. Just because it can build you doesn't mean it can't break you. It's still the cause of the demise either way.
Greed will make you into god and break you into a sinner. Just because it can build you doesn't mean it can't break you. It's still the cause of the demise either way.
To the OP here is a great article to read that sums up the current condition of the economy, the events leading up to the collapse of asset values, and why the economic "stimulus" does not treat the root cause/problem.
http://mises.org/story/3353
http://mises.org/story/3353
I stopped reading when it misused the word "deflation" and falling prices. If prices are falling due to a drop in aggregate demand, that is deflation. If prices drop due to technological changes, government intervention, etc...that isn' deflation. The curve shifted to the left.
Would you have a job if your employer wasn't greedy? My employer thinks it is important the the USA has the greatest military in the world; thus I have a job.
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