Now that the era of greed is over, we have to begin the era of the three R's -rehabilitation, responsibility & recovery. Let's keep the mistakes of the past in the past by playing back the last few years in our collective mind.
We were living in an era of deregulation that allowed almost every kind of unethical business behavior. In short, the average American was being conned. He was told that he could buy a house with little or no money down and pay for it with low monthly payments. Home owners were told that their homes were worth an ungodly amount of money and that they could tap that wealth with a reverse mortgage. TV programs were showing you how to sell your home for a profit. Flip this and flip that. People were speculating on real estate, driving the prices higher.
We all know how this sad story ended, but do we know what part we played in it? Some of us were truly innocent victims, especially those who lost their jobs as the eonomy got worse. Some of us were just taken to the cleaners by the get rich quick artists. As the police who go after con artists on a daily basis will tell you, the quickest way for a person to become a victim is for that person to get greedy. Once he or she truly believes that you can get something for nothing, the con artist wins.
On the next series of shows, we will find a cure for the recession. We will prove that you don't need congressional bailouts to do it, everyone just needs to do his and her part. Each of us has a role to play in America's economic recovery. Each of us has go about our tasks with a sense of urgency. People have freely given their lives to protect our country. We all have to do our part to end this recession. (1/21/2009 8:30 PM)