'bout Time

Note: this is a blog I wrote last week.

Because I've been waking up between 3 and 6 am, I've been turning on the TV to catch the east coast news programs before they go into repeats for the west coast audience. Today's offering on Morning Joe was something I've been saying for at least a year, if not longer:

We are all to blame for the economy! It's not just the bankers sitting in a row facing the congressional committees: it is also the congressional committee members sitting in a row and facing the bankers, as well as every single consumer who accepted the deal and signed the loan docs. Caveat emptor: let the buyer beware. It's our job to know what the deal is before we agree to it. If you cannot repay the loan, don't sign the docs.

The congressional committees were in an uproar when executives flew to the first Washington meeting in their private jets, but no one mentions how many congressional members are regularly flying to and from their home states to Washington DC, including Nancy Pelosi, who resides in Cally-fone-ya. Do you REALLY think that she is picking up the tab for those trips to commute to work? Not. Those trips are paid for by our taxes, along with all the wining and dining that goes along with the positional power.

Do as I say, not as I do seems to be the prevailing paradigm these days.

There are a lot of public people living in glass houses, making a very public display of their displeasure with the way business has been conducted. Well, they need to make those houses out of two-way mirrors and take a look at the decision-making process in which they have participated before they throw the first stone. We've already seen, in the first two weeks of the new president's term of office, that many of the upper-eschelon politicians push the boundary between doing the right thing and doing it only when they are caught not doing it, the old situational ethics stronger than it has ever been.

My remedy: remove the term "bail out" and all its synonyms from the political lexicon. If you run a company into the ground or don't pay your taxes or default on a loan, deal with it in the courts, not the court of public opinion. The sorry excuse has worn thin: it's time for everyone, not just the CEO's, to be held accountable for their actions.