Gekko Was Wrong: Apparently Greed is NOT Good

It seems so long ago that Michael Douglas uttered the line in the 1987 movie Wall Street that "Greed is good". Maybe it had been in the past but it sure has come home to roost now. Playing fast and loose with the regulations and with other people's money became the norm since before Enron. I guess we learned nothing from Enron which now pales in comparison to the failed Lehman Brothers free fall.

What irks me most is that I believed in the free market, giving responsible investors their head to make the best deals and thus make those invested in the market a little more comfortable. But now it seems that we cannot allow these greedy b**tards free rein or they will lie, cheat, and steal to line their own pockets. How many CEOs are going to still get their multi-million dollar bonuses?

The government can share some of the blame as well for not monitoring all of this activity particularly in light of the Enron scandal or for sure the Bear Stearns bailout. Did this really have to become such a crisis where financial wizards (I pray) have to hunker down all weekend to get emergency legislation passed to avoid something even worse?

And finally, I have to ask - What did I do wrong to deserve to have to share the terrible tax burden all Americans will have to bear? I invested wisely, took mortgages that I could easily afford, and paid my bills on time to avoid outrageous interest. Why do I (and you and you and you) have to mop us this mess with our own money? In fact, I now have less money to help pay this $1 trillion dollar bailout for the same reason that it regretfully has to happen. My own IRAs have lost 15-20% in value lately leaving me with far less than I planned in retirement. So I guess it's a double whammy. I will have to pay more in taxes with less money on hand. Wot a country.