US govt intervention in financial crisis of 2008

Every generation needs a revolution - an entrepreneurial revolution

This post went through several videos on the financial crisis of 2008

Several questions were raised?

1  Should the US govt bailed out Lehman brothers.?

    The prevailing thought was no   It is a private enterprise  Corporate greed

     (the  top dog said to have earned $200 to $500 million on their record year)

    and that the govt is not empowered to assist private enterprise.   

    Well the bail out or even the guarantees could have been very small say $5 to $10B.  Thereafter the         govt poured in at least $500 B in QE funds which did not lift the economy soon enough  And the             TARP ( Troubled Assets Relief Program about $500 billion) Not to mention the recession and huge          losses for many people

      Could the FED have stopped the practice of sub prime mortgages.   Alan Greenspan said that

      it was part of the 30% where he made an ooops.  

     The US Govt was not in the mood for more bail outs of the  too big to fail.  It just rescued Bear

      Stearns, Ginna Mae and Fanna Mae (the govt secondary mortgage markets

2.   Was the private company Lehman entirely responsible for this failure

      According to a Chief Economist Brian Wesbury lecture at TED talk, the indigestion at Lehman was        the result    interest rates that led to more mortgages and subprime mortgages  It is also the fault of          the firm  management, not managing well the down side of subprime mortgages and investing                heavily on such risky product   Clearly Lehman was not in this alone

Entrepreneurship should be taught to farmers - FAO expert

Every generation needs a revolution - an entrepreneurial revolution

This was said by the late Dr. Tito Contado, a from UP Los Banos and an expert who worked for FAO for a long time  He said  that what the agency promoted was subsistence farming.  Coupled with land reform that decreased the farmholdings of farmers, this posed serious obstacle in progress of agriculture. 

Instead he said, the agency should have taught farmers to be entrepreneurs, ie to be self sufficient.  With a single crop planted the  farmers are idle while waiting for the harvest.  If the farmer produces just a single crop, where does he get his other needs?  To buy these he needs to borrow even at usurious rates for his consumption

Thus farmers on their own must think for themselves at their own initiative, other businesses and exploit opportunities

Thus excess production of crops leading to waste leading to losses of capital need not happen  It is always govt govt fault.  Take note that govt can only initiate.   The rest is up to the farmers  He must solve his problems and find solutions.  Thus problem of storage:   organize cooperative for cold storage.  Excess production of vegies:   say tomato bottling, tomator paste making    Or cabbage -  make kimchi   Or poultry:    or pork ----> processed meat.

We have many schools and agencies teaching entrepreneurship or entreprenueria mindset   Let us do this

Top businessmen shift to Agricultural Production

Every generation needs a revolution - an entrepreneurial revolution

Realizing the importance of food security in nation building and for the uncertain times, two notable moves were published:    MPIC investing in an agri concern, a real estate and construction mogul resigning to head into agri

We need more of our talents to do this.  And more investments

When still in academe, I tried albeit vainly to connect an agri govt school to connect with the GSB.  

It should be pursued.   

This post admire the  move of KSA to invest heavily in agriculture turning dessert to bloom for self sufficiency in agri and even exports.  

Why cant we do this?   (Because of graft?   I remember the  time when I got invitation  (albeit in a talk talk situation) to run a farmers bank.    Was I glad I hehawed or did not even consider this.   The Pres at that time was involved in agri funds scandal.