It is unfortunate to me that our financial industry has been on my mind so much recently. I guess it is hard to avoid these days when you read such things as this. Or you read about the Madoff sons and start to maybe, just a little, sympathize with them before you remember that there are millions of 60-70 year old folks in our midst doing much, much worse and having to find jobs again thanks to our financial industry fleecing them.
The question that keeps running through my head: where is this headed? I like to think sometimes that I can somewhat predict the next turn or at least feel which way the wind is blowing, but today that picture is muddled.
It could be, as I fear, that things will go back to the way they were and we will inevitably have a repeat of some sort of this bubble/bust situation I have now seen twice in my short lifetime (and in just the last decade at that). It could be that, but I really hope not.
It could be that a few battles are won and regulation is no longer considered a dirty word and we start to slowly pull our shit together, get off the mat and put the financial industry in it's proper place in our society.
It could be that I have absolutely no clue as to what is going on in our geographically huge but economically small world we live in these days and that there is to be movements and gyrations that neither I nor most anyone could anticipate.
But probably what is going to happen is this: the financial industry will generally go back to business as usual as much as they can (they still have the same leaders and hierarchy in place so no reason to expect many changes) while some regulation is also imposed (that will be under constant attack). We more than likely will have another blip on the radar insofar as our economy is concerned (size TBD).
But here is the interesting thing to me: as the financial service industry disconnects further and further from the real world they also lose sight of the power of the network that is currently working against them. They ignore this at their own peril as there is now an incredible amount of stories and legacies out there about our elderly citizens having to go back to work, our wealthy taking hits of 50% or more on their holdings (in the case of Madoff investors: 100%), our neighbors losing their houses, our neighbors losing their jobs and of lives being turned upside down.
Does that bad blood combined with the networked conversation lead to success for our financial industry and country in the long run? Ignore the question at your own peril as so many companies and industries do these days.
