Where's Your Bailout?

By Rusty McDougal

You've heard a lot about US automotive bailouts this week. The government can be depended on to do exactly the wrong thing at the worst possible time throughout this ongoing financial crisis. That's how we got into this mess in the first place. If they don't change their ways, this downturn will drag out for a decade or more.

Colossal failures should never be rewarded. Bailouts and interventions will only prolong and intensify the pain of the depression we've now entered. The best tact is to take your lumps, reorganize and start over again from scratch. That is what you'd see if we actually had honest and "free" markets. We don't, sad to say.

Bailouts are primarily about protecting favored cronies and implementing more central planning. The Big Three automakers belong in the bankruptcy courts. The US is in a world of hurt if we have to rely on an economy that succeeds only because it is subsidized.

The bankruptcy process is apparently reserved for those deemed too small to bail. That would be me, you and most of our fellow citizens. There is no free lunch. We and our children are going to pay for these excesses. We'll pay through direct and indirect taxes, life style changes and loss of freedoms.

Elitist banks, insurance companies, crooked financial entities and crummy carmakers aren't the only ones staring failurein the eyes these days. Job losses, portfolio losses, strained budgets and sleepless nights abound across the country. This is our new growth industry.

Many will lack basic needs as the country continues to implode. Maybe GM is competent enough to run some soup kitchens! Ford can make tents for the homeless and Chrysler can surely design some 21st century parkas.

We get to face our various failures since we have no lobbyists or congressmen on retainer. Our elitist secret societies are merely the Elks, Rotary, Brownies or the Scouts. You live in the real world where there are consequences for your failure. You'll have to bail yourself out.

Failure brings a multitude of emotions with it; embarrassment, anguish, bewilderment, disillusion, anger as well as sorrow. Few escape life without a major catastrophe somewhere along the road. How you respond to the lowest points in life ultimately determines your character and your destiny.

Herman Melville stated it succinctly:

"He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great. Failure is the test of greatness."

Now there's a challenge for each of us.

Failure leads some to the pits of despair and suicide. Others descend into destructive lifestyles. Still others pick up the pieces, regain their determination and go on to achieve their life's dreams. Melville is speaking directly to the manner in which you respond to failure. That will determine your relative "greatness" as well as your future.

We remain in a time for reflection. Life needs to get a lot simpler in a hurry. Family, friends and relationships don't go away with portfolio and job losses. Difficult times bring us closer to our "Maker". Life can still be a joy ride even when your budget only has room for single ply toilet paper.

You must come to terms with any set backs as opposed to stuffing them deep inside. Buried emotions will bury you. Everybody comes up short at some point. Those with a dogged determination to push on in life are the ones who accomplish dreams.

You won't get a personal bailout, but you will have the ultimate satisfaction of knowing you've led your life to the fullest. In the end...That's all there is. Most everything else we chase in life is meaningless.

On a bigger scale, the feds need to get out of the way and allow the free market mechanisms to purge the excesses and mal-investments of this decade. Don't hold your breath. You're just as likely to hear them confess to having caused the problems to begin with.

We are now in an end game scenario from decades of dishonest money and contrived markets. Let's hope those who came up with all this "weird finance" don't receive global franchises. That's their plan.

Live Resourcefully,

Rusty