Kona Kohala Blog

Is it a good thing?  A bad thing?  Do we need to bailout our financial institutions like AIG, Lehman (too late there), Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac?

What do we do with those clowns that sunk those companies?  Are they let go with their millions in illgotten gains or do we prosecute them?  I like the Chinese approach, execute them but in our PC society that probably wouldn't sit well with certain groups.

What do you think?

Now we see if a free market can actually work?  Will the private sector step in and buy these poorly managed but still potentially solid companies or will we have to rely on the government to once again misspend our money?

So far, Warren Buffet stepped in on Goldman Sachs, Mitsubishi bought out part of Merril Lynch and Citigroup took over much of Washington Mutual.  If this continues we won't have to worry about blowing tax payer money on what may be defaulted loans.

This could mean that the real estate market may begin its slow recovery.  If the private sector steps in that speaks volumes about putting your money wherre your mouth is rather than being saved by the feds.  Such a move will probably reinforce people's opinions of our market system and further increase consumer confidence as was evidenced in September.

The media is so busy reporting on Sarah Palin's lake front house they don't have time to spend on meaningless good news.  Here in Hawaii, there are numerous reasons zoning variances are given private property owners and nobody makes a big stink about it.

We even have lots, more than we'd like, of homes with illegal additions, bedrooms, carports, garages, etc.  In many cases these are cleared up at the time of a sale.  However, there are lots of them where the new owner just accepts it as it is knowing it is "non-conforming".

I suppose we should look into that or we could just go to the beach and not worry so much about other people's stuff.  aloha