|
.
Setting the
Stage:
On a series of the
TLC-Life-Center websites, we will share with you the
result of our research regarding the sources and root causes of the
nation's financial problems. We will
also describe some possible alternative solutions. We
make no claims to having all the answers, but we have
found some previously ignored possibilities that
provide one or more of the much-needed
answers.
The Core
Problem:
Our investigation revealed that
the core problem in the financial industry is the
conflicts of interest between providing a service and
making a profit. This commonly shows
up as unethical, unfair, destructive lending practices.
These lending practices are producing the nation's present financial problems.
Financial organizations and the Wall Street brokers borrowed and lent money
that they did not have. The process is called
fractional reserve lending **1
commonly known as leverage. The
misuse of leverage is at the core of the
September 2008, financial crisis. The
devastation was based on the belief that one could
simply borrow money and then lend it to someone else at a higher
interest rate. This was a
high-stakes variation of a pyramid
scheme.
Because many of these loans were
leveraged as much as thirty to sixty times the value of the underlying assets,
they were very risky. When some people
or institutions could not repay their loans, they defaulted
and those
defaults started a chain reaction. The
financial bubble has now burst and almost all of those
holding highly leveraged loans are facing financial
disaster.
One of the problems is that this
was foreseeable. It's also not a new
phenomenon. It has occurred several time
before. Why did so may people turn a blind eye
to a pending meltdown? **fb3
The
Current Crisis:
The Bush administration is
proposing that the government deficit spend another 700 billion dollars of taxpayers
money and buy all
those worthless loans. The nation is already excessively in debt
from previous government deficit spending. Two logical questions to ask
are: "Are there any alternative
solutions?" Are there any additional solutions?
Fixing the Debt Problem with More Debt:
When you examine the proposed solution to
our financial meltdown , you see the government's solution to our excessive
debt problem is to double the debt. This is classic
short-term thinking. 700 billion dollars dumped into the economy
will, in the short-term, appear to have solved a major portion of the problem. In
the long-term, it will actually make the problem much
worse.
"You cannot fix a problem with the
same practices that created the problem." More of the same
and the same thing harder are tools of failure. Fixing that
which is broken rarely ever works. The financial system is
severely broken. It needs to be replaced, step at a time, with new systems that
accomplishes the goals we are intending to accomplish.
What Are
the Goals?
To the question, what are our goals, we hear generalized
answers like: "A stable economy." "To take care of the people." BUT . .
. When one gets specific:
It's all about borrowing money.
For people to be able to borrow money to buy cars and
homes; for small businesses to be able to borrow money to keep
their businesses running; for banks to be able to borrow money
from each other; for students to be able to borrow money to
attend college. Borrow, borrow, borrow!
Being able to borrow is at the core of the
problem? It's not the solution. With every borrower, there
must be a lender. This brings up a serious question.
Who
has all that money that everybody is borrowing? And whose taking
in all that interest money that everybody's paying? We'll address
these questions on another page. **fb4 In the mean time, we need to
focus on getting beyond the present financial crisis.
What else could we do with 700
billion dollars?
N.C.W.'s
Win-Win Business Structure: What if some of that
money were used to correct one of the nation's core financial
problems, the problem of excessive corporate debt? Lending money
to foundations that are building The New
Corporate World Foundation's Win-Win Business Structure **2
would be a big step in reducing corporate debt. It would also expand the focus the corporations that adopt the N.C.W.'s Win-Win
Business Practice. The
present focus
on profits at any price would be expanded to also include
the the well-being of the corporation's employees, its customers, and the
environment.
Non-profit
Home Loan Lending Foundations: What if a
non-profit foundation were set up in each county in the United States and
those foundations were expressly designed to provide loans to local home
owners facing foreclosure. What if some of that 700 billion
dollars was loaned to assist homeowners facing foreclosure?
These two proposals, if and when
implemented, would make significant steps toward resolving our financial
crisis. They would empower the people. They
are both relatively simple and easy to implement. For an in-depth look at the problem
and some possible solutions, please go to the three web pages indicated in
the next section below.
|