Tell us your OPINION why nothing was done about it until it was too late.
I do not believe that blame for the crisis of choice (housing, financial, automotive, employment, etc.) can be fairly assigned to any one person, business segment (wall street, mortgage brokers, insurance companies, speculators, investment banks, savings banks, etc.), political leader, political party or branch of government. Blame starts with each consumer that borrowed more money than was prudent and spreads high and wide to the businesses and policies that encouraged and made it possible to abandon common-sense lending practices and financial assumptions.
Not everyone is in a crisis. One-third of American homeowners don't have a mortgage because they paid their house off. While their home values are declining because other people are losing their homes and supply is growing, the one-third will not lose their house. Another third or more has mortgages but are not in trouble with them.
So, if you own a home that is going down in value and you did everything right, who do you blame?
I think putting time and energy into answering that question is a near total waste of time. Because we want to help the country recover and reform, it is not a total waste of time, but it is a near-total waste of time.
Playing the blame game is a distraction. It sidetracks you from objectively gathering the facts. People will learn more by trying to understand what is going on than by picking targets to blame and yammering on about who did what wrong.
We are expediters. To succeed financially as expediters it is far more important to know the truth than it is to settle for a portion of it that feels like the truth because you have someone to blame.
For example, our used truck is probably worth less in today's market than it would be if we were not in a recession. Our revenue is lower because of the financial crisis. Credit is more difficult to obtain so if we wanted to buy a new truck or a house or something like that (we don't want to buy either of those) it is more difficult than before. The job market has tightened up so if we wanted to leave expediting for another opportunity, the opportunities are reduced.
I can put time and energy into blaming my neighbor for his idiotic borrowing and spending, bank for making stupid loans, delusional financial engineers for creating exotic financial products that made the loans possible, idiotic rating agencies that blessed instead of condemned the products, greedy companies for hiring and turning a blind eye to the idiots that did great harm, moronic "experts" on Wall Street that created markets for these products that had nothing but fantasy behind them, government officials for creating stupid policies, and even Democrats or Republicans for being wrong because they are Democrats or Republicans.
As Diane and I sit with a reduced truck value, reduced freight, reduced revenue, reduced employment options, and a major threat to the value of the dollars we have in the bank (inflation likely to rise because of huge public debt), playing the blame game will do us little good.
The question for expediters who want to succeed is not, "Who is wrong?" The question for expediters who want to succeed is, "What is going on around me and how can I best proceed in these circumstances?"
It might feel good to be politically right. It is better, I believe, to focus on being financially right.
In America, there are successful Democrats, successful Republicans, successful independents; and successful Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, atheists, etc. When I am trying to figure out how to succeed as an expediter, I don't look at the things that make people right or wrong. I look at the things they have in common that makes them financially successful and seek to learn from that.
Playing the blame game can feel good and help one feel right by making other people wrong. It might even help bring your version of political reform to the country. But if you are interested in success as an expediter, the blame game is an unproductive mental and emotional distraction.
So to answer the question you asked, something was done before it was too late. While many people and leaders strayed from them, a number of Americans continued to follow sound business practices and money-management principles. On the ground, in our one-truck business, theirs is the example we seek to know and follow.
In this financial crisis, I am not looking for the people who were wrong, I am looking for people who were right. And I am finding them in every business, political sector and religion mentioned above.
