An open letter to the candidates.
First off why put this on a company blog. Well we are a startup and uncertainty and risk are our business. Entrepreneurs like us are what will help grow this economy again. Innovation and inspiration are what we do and lend to this (once) great economy.
Second before you get the brunt of my rant – watch some videos we have collected on this current crisis – some funny (most not so much).
Wall Street Woes, Bill Moyers PBS, Onion on john mccain, wall street bailout game
Now, back to meat of this rant. We are a little tiny startup – two guys in garage (well a loft actually) – and we are taking a big risk trying to develop a business from nothing. Small businesses like us represent the economy and its growth potential. I am not just talking about the home runs (i.e. google, Microsoft, etc) but the small shops (development included), stores and misc business. Small businesses (startups included) employ almost exactly half the private U.S. labor force of about 153 million. When we increase our headcount, the cumulative effect is dramatic. This crisis will hit us first. We pinch every penny, we are in the business of spinning straw into gold and if the price of straw goes up we are just fucked (not to mention all the support mechanisms like health and other insurances or the ability to get loans to cover payroll until invoices are processed).
What we all saw last night in the debates were a bunch of easy words directed a culture of greed of wall street and bad lending practices. This is not a time for simplified characterizations of our financial industry. The business of making money from money is a necessary one. The capital / commodities markets (fx I have my issues with, but that is another story) are necessary, but these markets are gateways to complicated overdeveloped schemes to push the boundaries of how money can be made. I have been involved in a few software projects over the years that has given me a small insight. Regulation is completely necessary especially when these large industries know they exist in the universe of socialized capitalism. In the past 20 years (or since I have been paying attention) anytime a major driving industry of the US economy missteps (usually from its own idiocy or greed) the government is there with open arms with no oversight.
Now the government is stepping in (or trying to) with 700 billion (and likely much more) to buy up all the mortgage-backed securities to stabilize the markets. Is this the best place or mechanism to put 700 billion in our economy? The truth is no one knows and no one (and I am talking about you candidates) is standing up and saying this is a shit-storm and we need to evaluate the fundamentals of our economy and look for where the real stability and growth potential is.
We need a massive re-think. Basically over the past 10 years (well twenty) the deregulation has allowed financial organizations to take bigger and bigger risks to make money. The goal with not to encourage fundamentals like make a widget (lets let the Chinese do that) / buy a widget, but lets game the system. The game has been called ladies and gentlemen and now us small players are wondering where to go from here. We need leadership, real leadership because as any small business startup leader know, you wake up everyday and make the hard decisions to make it to the next day.
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