Wall Street Revisited: Another HR Primer
This is Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary. He is working with Congress and the President to stop the hemorrhaging of the US financial markets. Paulson has asked Congress for $700 billion to buy up bad loans that sit on the books of American financial institutions; however, some members of Congress and economists are arguing against moving too quickly and throwing $700 billion dollars at a problem just to stop the psychological panic in the marketplace.
There are other leaders, such as Senator Chris Dodd, who are advocating a level of accountability and reciprocity. Some suggest that we offer relief to American citizens who have been affected by layoffs, rising medical costs, bankruptcies and foreclosures. If we can offer bailouts to banks, we can help our fellow citizens.
It’s a mess, dudes. The New York Times has an explainer column. I would recommend you read it, yo.
One Comment on “ Wall Street Revisited: Another HR Primer ”
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I know that the media and others try to make this a political problem, but I was in the Real Estate business in California and I can tell you that everyone was caught up in the exuberance of gettng people into homes. All parties seemed to be in total denial of the subprime loan problem to come because they all thought that the increase in home prices would continue upward and take care of any issues.
It is a huge problem that, I believe, will continue to snowball no matter what the feds do. Throwing our money at the problem may actually cause bigger problems in the near future. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Oh, as far as HR is concerned, I saw the same kind of exuberance in the electronics industry when, we in HR started giving away free insurance in order to attract engineering candidates. We never thought about the time when we might have to go back and ask employees to contribute to the cost of the premiums.
Posted on 22. September 2008 at 13:11