Its time to take some time off and recharge. All the excitement of the “08:08” events wore me out.

And while we are considering lower oil prices, lets actually try to consider fixing the financial system problems of today. It really calls for a series of meaningful regulatory overlays, not a bunch of restrictions. Here’s an interesting point of view:


Professor Shiller thinks our bankrupcty laws need to be overhauled
as one of the fixes for financial system meltdowns:

>Current bankruptcy law, and the system of bankruptcy courts, were put in place by Congress with the help of organizations like the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. It’s not shocking that these groups seem to have approached the problem of bankruptcies largely as narrow specialists, thinking mostly of the interests of their clients, rather than of the economy as a whole. We can’t expect securities lawyers to focus on issues like threats to consumer confidence or, for that matter, disruptions in the labor market.

>But someone needs to do it.

An like any period of upheaval, there are winners, and there are losers.

Or better yet, think about our ability to to craft new laws to solve our problems.

And while you’re at it, think about this as a complete sentence while I am away:

>Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

Does this make sense? Of course, not. That’s why I am taking a break.


2 Comments

  1. Edd C Gillespie August 10, 2008 at 8:51 am

    I thought you already took your break.
    Anyway, I submit that it is not a carefully crafted web of regulations that is needed. My bet is that we are pretty close to something that would work if they were enforced. Incidentally, I knew some of t people who worked on the bankruptcy act back in the day, th same one that has been eroded into oblivion by the credit card companies, and they were some pretty independent characters.
    From time to time I actually try to understand your comments, to the extent of following the links.
    So, “‘Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully bully Buffalo bison.”
    Have a productive break, but keep it short.

  2. Edd C Gillespie August 10, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Incidentally, the information that I have says that the pervasive mind set among the participants on the panels that wrote the bankruptcy act in the late 70’s were very much in agreement that the lenders should share in the loss when the debtor could not repay his obligations.
    The lenders were asleep at the switch, the act passed and the lenders have spent the last 30 years trying to rid them elves of the consequences.
    A significant part of the current problem is due to lenders avoiding transparency, accountability and consequences of their own acts.
    The other significant contribution to the malaise is measuring economic health based on consumer spending without consideration for savings.
    I believe a great deal of the problem relates to the prevailing philosophies and politics.
    I say the answer for the lowly appraiser is to avoid the plague of working for clients who sacrifice economic health for short term, selfish, myopic gains driven by greed. The problem of course is that those sorts of clients are rare and reclusive.

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