XXl to KKr

For some reason today I chose to begin my day by reading Bloomberg's Businessweek news. Big mistake. Page after page, line after line there was bad news. Unemployment at 9.5% steady and rising, double dips, consistent profits but decreasing revenues, alarming number of foreclosures, BP gas leak issues, low investment banking performance and then I came across this interesting article about how the government in Dubai was handling the real estate bubble burst. The concept was very interesting and seemed to work for Dubai. Effectively persons responsible for the crisis were arrested and put under strict supervision in crowded jails. The judge refused bail after bail and mentioned that the release would happen only when the person responsible would reimburse the Dubai government the losses it suffered. Infact in some case people held in jail were not responsible for all the amount mentioned but the government in Dubai did not seem to care. For them a partake in theft entitled the thief for torture and jail.

The mention of one of the individuals responsible for a loss of $250 million was scary. Seems like he lived in a cell meant for 48 with 250 people. What was worse was that the entire place had only two toilets and he was consistently denied food for days until he admitted his mistake. Sounds nerve wrecking but in his case it worked. His lawyers are busy selling or writing over his property to the Dubai government in order to get his ass off the jail and I am very sure once out in open he would not dare smell gold in someone else's pot or cheat others.

I wish the same could have been done in the US. But being so very democratic which I strongly support (after all we are supposed to be civilized not barbarians) can sometime end up being expensive. I cheer for free trial but if guilty then I do not see why the US government should not do what the Dubai government did? I mean its like the law of physics the money was in the market that is it must have moved from point A to point B. It has to be somewhere. It cannot have just possibly vanished into thin air.

Plus bailing out only gives solace to the wrong doer that there will always be a rescuer no matter how high the current. After paying close to 33% tax it pains me when I see people who do mistakes walk all the way away with a clean sheet. Its just not fair. People in Dubai do not even pay taxes and their government returns so much more to them in the form of good quality life. Women equality is an exception to the topic of discussion.

Nevertheless here we are in the US where Roubini warns about double dip and stresses on expansion of fiscal policy and literally snubs Ben Bernanke who according to me is doing a wonderful job of keeping things in check. Then there is another school of thought that yay's bail outs and others who think its socialism and its toxic and that our beloved president is a fascist.

Fascist my Ass! Ask people from Benito Mussolini's time as to what fascism is and they will help you get a rendevouz for now I can only say this much XXl to Kkr is for sale because the credit market is tight. People are not spending enough and the savings market refuses to perform. Treasury is buying notes followed by bonds and hoping that the market would absorb shocks if any. Europe is using carrot and stick approach with Greece and emerging markets are having a ball. For how long no one knows. Hope everything stabilizes and America once again becomes great and next time when I open Bloomberg's I hope I get to read more about 2012 dubious predictions which keeps the dumb and the dumber involved. Because if good or dumb does not replace the bad then trust me my friend America will sink no doubt but it will create ripples so bad that it will drown many more countries along with it and I for one am not ready for it. And I hope I never have to be!