Thursday, October 23, 2008
Questions for America

In the face of the economic turmoil that is strangling our country as well as the world as a whole, there are questions that I beleive need asked. Questions that step on the toes of both parties and the blame rhetoric from both sides.

Q1: How much of an affect did forcing major lendors to provide loans to high risk customers have on the crisis?

Reason to ask: Did Democratic leadership press to hard on the systemand what was the actual percentage of these particular loans that caused the melt down. Did the push for these loans press beyond what safe regulartions would have prosribed.

Q2: Is there a difference between the risky loans the Democratic leadership pushed for and the ARMs that were so widely used?

Reason to ask: Clarification could help as make better choices on how to prevent this from happenning again. Did the Democrats make a blanket request without defining specifics that would have made better sense. To me there is a difference between lending a helping hand by requiring a lower fixed interest rate for struggling faminies and using ARMs to do this job. An ARM makes absolutely no sense for a family struggling to make ends meet. It is helpful in the beginning but bitesthem later on. To me, it seems banks wanted to try to retain their profit by keeping the overall level the same and just shifting when it was paid. Only a little interest early on and the rest later on. Did the Democrats just say get it done without saying howand ARMs were the Bank'sresponse. Did anybody really think about the results.

Q3: How much did deregulation play into the problem?

Reason to ask:Didnot defining how far banks could go allow the over saturation of these toxic debts into economy? Maybe the Democrats pushed their agenda too far. Maybe the Republicans took awaytoo many of the safety measures that would have stopped the meltdown before it happened. Maybe the Republicans'constant push for deregulation allowed companies with no experience in the proper safety measures of banking to get into the business of loaning. Did they help create a newgroup of players outside of the system with an unfair advantage and little experience? Banks still had to followcertain rules , which hampered their abilities, while thenew players had no rules at all.

Q4: How much of an affectdid the repackaging of thesetoxic loans and selling them as a security have?

Reason to ask: We need to know the extent of the damage caused by the bad loans themselves and the extent of the damage causedby mortgage backed securities. Again, deregulation may have allowed the creation ofthe mortgage backed securitiesthat now clog the arteries of our credit system.Are MBS's the fatty butter that our high cholesterol economy should have stayed away from? By knowing this information, we can make better choices.

Q5: How much of an affect did profiteering have on the meltdown?

Reason to ask: Many of these companies went "Hell bent to election" on these ARMs. Did they build up a huge load of debt for short term paper profits. These companies made all of their decision based on one very faulty assumption, home prices would always go up. One thing in life I have learned is that nothing is a sure bet. Companies built up huge amounts of paper profits, shotsightedly, on the basis that even if people could not repay there loans, they could refinance with the higher value of their home. In addition, the assumption that land and home vaules would always go up, created an atmosphere where everyone wanted land and homes as a sure asset. The building pace went through the roof so that even more paper profits were made. Thus, a snowball effect was created. The more you built, the more profits you made. The more profits you made, the more you built. Also,companies from the banks to realtors jumped on the band wagon telling everyone to by more and bigger. They supported this falsehood vigorously. Did some of them begin to suspect the truth and continue to push anyhow?Did they buildhuge paper profits and then exchange the paper for real money before walking away, leaving us with the bill? Were we conned by big business?

Posted by Rob Garbin 2008-10-23 07:02:45

Thursday, October 23, 2008
Patriotism

I have come to believe that few Americans outside of Military Families really understand what Patriotism is about. Patriotism is about loving your country so much that you are willing to die for it or at least sacrifice something for the greater good. What I see from Washington, The News, and America in general is that they are all for Patriotism as long as some one esle is doing it.

Big oil is all for finding alternative energy for the good of our enviroment and our national security as long as they keep their hulking profits. They care so much about the safety of the American way of life that one company that made 11.68 billion in profits in one quarter plans to spend only 100 millionon research for alternate energy. No specific time frame on how this seemingly large investment would be spent. Folks, let me spell it out for you, this investment equals 0.856% of one quarters profit. I don't beleive they are showing much concern for the fact that we only have a projected 3% of the world oil supply but use 25% of which 70% is imported. The security risks are staggering. We may have the best trained and equipped army, but without fuel, it is totally useless.

Now we turn to the Banks, Wall Street, and Big Business CEO's. After building up our economy on paper profits for decades, when there companies were being bailed out by the government, some executives could not sacrifice one final $400,000 party. Also, for God sakes, don't talk about taking their saleries away and don't expect them to sacrifice some of their wealth. They want us to keep the useless paper while they keep the real money.

Who's next? How about the middle class. It is a hell of a hard life, I know because I am on the bottom edge of this group. But God forbid if we can't buy that new piece of cheap electronic crap that is spoon fed to us. Nevermind that most of us are in debt well above our eyeballs (more like twenty feet under) from buying stuff we don't need and does not really make us happy. I admit I am an off an on offender in this category. I recently talked with some one who has gotten himself into deep debt. He felt that he has learned his lesson and turned over a new leaf. He professed to having debt twice his yearly salary. He now only uses credit cards when he has money in the bank to pay them off. That sounds good, but he also made no mention of dealing with the debt he already has, which is proably costing him more in monthly interest than he paid for most of the items he bought. He currently has over ten credit cards. By not sacrificing his lifestlye he is helping to support a short-sighted economical mentality that rewards profits now over chaos later.

The poor also play a roll in this or more accurately those who milk the system. There are people out there who just live off of welfare because they feel it is their right. Instead of using it for what it was meant for, as a helping hand to get on your own feet, they use it as a lifestyle. Of course the problems with welfare are also in its implementaion. The system is not working as it should, but Democrats are fearful of admitting it needs fixed for the fact that they would be hammered by Republicans and loose it completely. This inability to sacrafice faullty points of view hurt the nation as a whole. The Democrats need to admit that welfare needs repaired and Republicans need to admit that large numbers of our citizens help.

My whole pointfor this post is that we all need to sacifice and change our entire way of thinking as a nation. Patriotism is so much more than just joining the military and risking your life. Patiortism is fighting to make our country better. Patriotism is giving up pleasures that are harming our country. Patriotism is uniting the country instead of driving a wedge into it. Patriotism is willingness to sacrifice the short term to save the long term that you may not get to enjoy. Patriotism is something for all of us to do, not justour citizens in the military.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2008-10-23 05:52:59

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Talking to You

I just wanted to let you guys know how much it means to me that you read what I write down. I was just writing an e-mail to a friend about how little I get to truly share my feelings and the way I think. For the better part of my life, I have not really fit in. While of course this has led to problems with my social life, the harder part was not being able to express my feelings to anyone that even showed a little interest. My views, while not always informed, are important to me and have been garndnered from a lifetime of watching and listening.

I live for discussion. I feel that I have become more and more the philosopher that I use to kid myself about being when I was young. I think I will give do credit to SF&F because of the weightymorals and ideas that I read about within their pages. The characters that meant the most to me where the ones that struggled through the most adversity and won or at least gained respect. Covenant, Vlad-Taltos (up to Orca anyway, he seems to be sliding backwards now), and Morgan Prince of Hed to name a few.

So please feel fre to contact me and talk aboutthings. I can't promise you that I will always be tactful but I will have an open mind. You may not see it imediately because I am stubborn, but I have no problem changing my mind if I am convinced.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2008-07-01 07:27:32

Monday, May 26, 2008
The Fall of Blessing and Prosperity

I have a rather bad habit of taking criticism of my work in onlya negative light. That some how the person who gives me a bad review was just being a jerk. maybe they wanted to make themselves look better than me by putting me down. I have tried to temper this irrational over reaction to ratings and/or criticisms, but I still have a hard time.

Take the story Iwrote with the same title as this entry. I had such a grand vision for this story becauseit was to become an important piece of the history of a larger work. I had mapped out a complete history of this world and how this particular story fit in. I wanted to create a grand tragedy that would become part of a defining moment for some characters in the larger work. However, I did not want to reveal too much of the larger history.

I spent a good amount oftime trying to paint this horrible event with deep tones of sadness and pain. I wanted to show how pointless the original causes for the catastrophy were. All the things I had mapped out were to be part of the under painting of the story giving it depth and weight. So, after posting my great work, I was dumbfounded to get such a low rating. How could they not get the power of the story. I have read such series as Donaldson's Covenant, Cherryh's Morgaine, and Moorcock's Elric.Avidly watched movies like Bladerunner, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Serenity. My favorite TV show was Babylon 5. How could I have not created a work with the same power as these. Simple, I left most of it in my head.

As I have been working on the rewrite of Blessing and Prosperity, I have noticed how little of what I thought I was putting into the story actually got there. While trying to hide the bulk of the history Ihave created, I ended up leaving too much out. The reader was givien no reason why these two great cities were trying to obliterate each other. The silly arrogance I was trying to portray was nothing more then set dressing. Looking at the story now, I see that I have terribly short changed it. Some of it was from trying to create pacing, while some was do to trying to hide the larger story. In addition, I was so caught up in describing the event and the horror thatI let out the biggest part of the impact the tragedy. The reason why.

I hope that those of you who have read this story in its rough state will be willing to give it a second chance after I have had a chance to polish it up.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2008-05-26 05:49:19

Thursday, April 17, 2008
My 2 cents continued

Imigration Issue Revisited.

As far as the rich go, I may not have as much to go on here, but one thing is true, if the people you sell to have less money than they can't buy your products. I also beleive that if you are willing to tow the line a bit and take some of the load by cutting your percentage the rewards in the long run will be better than what you get in the short term. Don't say the heck with the little guy, I got mine. In the unstable enviroment you create, you could easily become a have not. Remember, you may feel like a big fish to your employees and customers, but you are probably just a small fish to the CEO shark. Yes, it takes more work to make a profit this way, but I think it will be a more sustainable profit. If people see you running with the money, than they will try to run with your money too.

I invite anyone who wants totry and add more compelling reasons why it would be to be a benefit for the rich to join us in fixing the US imigration issue, please add a comment. I would prefer positive comments. Lead with a carrot, not follow with a stick.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2008-04-17 05:43:55