Plaxo Update: Financial Crisis Reactions

There’s a no-holds-barred discussion of the financial meltdown going on in my Plaxo/Pulse network.

If you’re already a Plaxo member, join the poll and the discussion here: http://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/events/show/91930688.

Or join us on Plaxo here: http://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/.

We kicked it off by asking in a poll: On a 10-point scale, how concerned are you about the Wall Street “market meltdown?”

After 60 votes, here are the standings:

10 - Beyond concerned. This is a PANIC! - 1%
9 - Extremely concerned. - 20%
8 - Very concerned. - 28%
7 - 10%
6 - 11%
5 - 5%
4 - 5%
3 - Somewhat concerned. - 11%
2 - Mildly concerned - 5%
1 - Not at all concerned. I’m totally COOL! - 1%

The results match a larger, more scientific survey we’ve launched, which you can see here: http://cpatrendlines.com/2008/09/23/market-meltdown-survey-results/.

And we got comments on Plaxo. Man, we got comments. Here’s a sample.

COMMENTS

When the law was passed in 1998 to allow finance and banking to interoperate, the “brilliant” minds that thought of junk bonds, came up with ways to proliferate the selling of badly backed loans - through multiple carriers no less…  The firms got what they deserved… poor design + poor management = poor business.

– Chuck Vigeant, QuickBooks guru.

Nothing is worse than having to guess at the reality of the whole financial sitiation. Until all the facts surface and get understood, we are in for long, and dark, nights.

– Ron Eagle, President,  Information Technology Alliance

Tough times - it’s feeling like it’s 1975 all over again. A little humor is out there, though, related to the hedge fund situations…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8PwqQ5guYk

– Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP

The segregation of risk to allow a both a greater degree of leverage and the customization of risk is what the world of finance is all about and this will continue into the future albeit in potentially different forms. These times are scary, but what is scarier is that this can and will happen again regardless of government intervention.

– Ken Fick, Director in FTI’s Forensic and Litigation practice, based in Washington DC.

Never underestimate the willingness of the banks to think up new Ponzi schemes, or the eagerness with which Americans will embrace such schemes.

– G MacPherson, ex-AICPA staffer now publisher at IEEE.

This is what you get when you marry greed, to government supported lending, without sufficient government regulation and oversight when they really have skin in the game. Plenty of blame to go around, but willing sheep going to the slaughter (thinking there was no end to the R/E bubble) occupy the bottom rung; place the CEOs and the financial magicians who dreamt up the instruments and thought they could keep the punch bowl filled and spiked on the rung above, but save the top rung for the politicians - all of them, although this sort of lack of regulation or de-regulation is more typical of Republican thinking. I know, let’s ask Sarah Palin to figure this out; after all, hockey moms balance check books, don’t they?

– Andrew Blackman, CPA in tax, business management and personal financial planning

I do know one thing Andrew, Sarah Palin would recognize greedy pols from half way across Alaska.

– KC Truby, CEO, Lonesome Cowboy Publishing.

Thanks to one and all for joining the discussion. See you on Plaxo!

Posted at October 11, 2008
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] |

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