Tuesday, November 18, 2008

International Triage

I realized today while watching the 3 CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler before Congress that the likelihood of one of them, especially General Motors going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy BEFORE Obama is inaugurated is about 75% likely. If this happens the other two won't be far behind. Obama might have to watch them all go through Chapter 11 and not really be able to do anything after he is inaugurated. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing probably depends on whether you are a retired UAW employee or Big Three supplier or other related Auto retiree or supplier of Goods to the the Big three.

Unfortunately, there is more to worry about both nationally and internationally than major corporations. There is a worry about the whole nation going bankrupt not just the individuals but the whole government. Now, to be real about this the U.S. cannot go bankrupt without taking down most free nations with it. So the actual likelihood of America actually being allowed to go bankrupt is minimal at least at this point.

No, we are looking now at international financial triage at this point. If you ever saw the movie "Pearl Harbor" with Ben Affleck, there is a scene where his girlfriend is asked to take a lipstick during the pearl harbor attack and put "F" for fatal on the still alive that have no hope of recovery so the ones that still could be saved can be saved.

Unfortunately, it looks like we are dealing with this same kind of thing on an economic front. Only this time it is countries and corporations and banks and individuals. It is a financially very scary time worldwide. And it is a given that many nations, corporations, Banks and individuals will go bankrupt worldwide. And this, unfortunately will also cause uncountable deaths from everything from Starvation to food riots to the piracy of the incredibly desperate Somalians who just stole an oil tanker off Somalia that is 3 to 4 times the size of an aircraft carrier.

And unfortunately, this is only the beginning. Looking at the world situation and what is happening as an educated pragmatic and practical person it can only get much worse before it has a chance of getting better.

IN the meantime lets just hope the United States doesn't go bankrupt because just like the failure of the big three auto makers, the bankruptcy of the United States Government could be on the horizon. That is the main reason the Congress may not bail out the Big three automakers. Time will Tell!

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