OK, Frau Wadhwa has ALWAYS been a great fan of our very own Rick Santelli (hey, even my Mum loves him and that HAS to count for something!)... And throughout this crisis that has mushroomed into a very nasty nuclear cloud before us, I have always maintained -- and often said so on-air and off! -- that good old Rick is one of the few voices of common sense and reason in the markets and on our very own channel. Today's performance and outburst from the market pit once again proved that to me with a vengeance!!!!
Rick, it's official: You rock! Hang in there! I for one am totally with ya! Or in more dramatic terms:
Rick Santelli über alles, über alles auf dem Markt!
There, I hear our Rick debating with the changing troops of other CNBC colleagues that "this is no time for ideology, " that politicians need to "get their thumbs out" and sign up on these much needed fund injections into the ailing system and "work out the details later."
There, I hear some of those usually oh-so-cool and smart market players, bankers and Gordon Gecko-sound-a-likes with panic in their eyes and screeching, frantic voices hysterically calling for action NOW, because "we have no time." Because the market is losing another 500 today or tomorrow and more banks are going to go bust and the economy is failing fast -- and, and, and...
If it weren't so sad and so serious, I could have burst out laughing. No, not good old Teutonic Schadenfreude... No need for that. OUR bankers and politicians were eager enough to buy that "American" banking dream of banking without the hindrance of common sense, let alone PRUDENCE only too well.
Regulation? Pah! Who needs it? What do regulators know? Only hinders the markets. Poison.
Stricter capital adequacy requirements? Old-fashioned nonsense!
Banking licence and supervision for investment banks? How droll! As if investment bankers needed supervision... Hmmmm?!?!?!?
And now? NOW they all scream for help. For Mummy or Daddy and for MY and YOUR hard-earned money to save their sorry butts... That's really the long and short of it, isn't it?
Now, we all know the sad thing -- that's precisely what we shall HAVE to do. More's the shame. We should really feed them all to the wolves. But we can't. Because then we're all mincemeat ourselves.
But for crying out loud! The least things we, you, OUR politicians can demand, insist on -- make damned sure is that they DO WORK OUT THE DETAILS... BEFORE they sign up on any deals.
And another thing: afterwards, it cannot -- must not -- be BUSINESS AS USUAL. Eventually some scores from this utter
INCOMPETENCE
RECKLESSNESS
LACK OF ANY SENSE
will have to be settled.
In the meantime, I for one never cease to be baffled how all these bankers can fall apart in the face of disaster.
I have seen miners and steel workers and business founders in the third generation lose their livelihoods -- see their worlds falls apart forever WITHOUT being saved by anybody.
I have seen grown man weep in the face of such and other disasters.
But never -- NEVER have I seen such lack of nerve as with these men (mostly men) who should have so much more NERVE, given the power and money they wield.
I guess, when the going gets tough, SOME are just not tough enough.
And then, I also remembered that old market wisdom:
If you panic, panic first!
Now, chaps, it's faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too late for panic. Now we might as well sweep up the debris and rebuild the house SOUNDLY.
Rick: Rock on! And keep telling them, OK?
The rest of you:
Ciao for now,
Silvia
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