The Essenceof theFinancial Crisis

Washington Post,Oct. 3,2008 on page A22: Letter to the Editor from John R."Jack" Harney: "Contrast that with the "financial sector" and its egregiously unsound business practices. Its current decline derives as much from misfeasance as from misdeeds. For years, many in the financial sector have been operation (actually, buying and selling) "money" backed by assets that they have never seen and do not own and that in many cases do not exist in terms of real value. They have treated "money" as a commodity to barter for their product - more money. That they did not own the commodity has come home to roost. It is as simple as that. My comment: It is not only a financial game but also a finesse at best or at worst as the case may be! Query: The papers have the value when they have been endorsed with financial clout by authorities. Such situations are not untrue,indeed!
On page D3: Steven Pearlstein wrote: " Wall Street is nothing if not an organized system of greed, a high-stakes game in which the object is to take advantage of customers and counterparties by buying pieces of paper from them at less than they are really worth and selling them to others for more than they are worth. Each cycle, the masters of finance start out with good products and good intentions, only to get swept away by their success. They become arrogant, take too many risks and begin to believe their own marketing spiels. Then, when the cycle turns against them and the risks turn sour, they try to cover it up and begin lying to their customers, to regulators and to each other. Trust erodes, and the whole thing collapses. To some, that may be a story of greed. To me, it looks more like old-fashioned incompetence." My comment: It is the negative side of human behavior since economics has to do with human actions in USA and in China or any other nations. I would promote "Work and Study Cycle" to boost productivity for workers to learn and to pursue knowledge and wisdom during their lives on earth for REAL ECONOMICS to make positive contributions. Such ideal may be idealistic but it is the only solution to the wellbeing of people and nations as Adam Smith or Confucius/Mencius would have such visions in their sayings for ethics and morality.

Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao,a thinker in economics with positive reasoning for humankind of "One World.""One Human Race" apropos of globalization of economics.

October 3, 2008 at 10.45 a.m.