Now that the bailout has passed, I hope that we will start moving towards the point when pre-approval letters from lenders meant something.  This has been a tough year trying to get transactions closed in spite of pre-qualifying customers/clients and obtaining a pre-qualification letter.  It has been as though the loan originators and the underwriters were working from two different guideline books.  With the bail out let’s hope that everyone will get on the same page and make responsilbe but fair lending decisions. 

That’s the question of the day, “Should we bail out wall street?”  I am the owner/broker of a real estate company.  I pay my bills on time, balance my checking accounts and strive to live debt free.  I also am responsible and ethical when it comes to running my office.  If I ran my business like many of the elected officials are running our country AND how many corporate CEO’s are running mega companies I would be bankrupt and my doors closed faster than you can imagine.  So, should we reward irresponsible and unethical behavior?  Should we be asked to pay for those who made very poor decisions in the name of greed?  Should we excuse those who took advantage of this irresponsible and unethical behavior by pleading ignorance?  I think not initially.  My first reaction is NO!  If a company can not run a business successfully - let it fail!  Then I begin to think about the repercussions of this attitude.  I believe I am doomed if I say “yes” and I am doomed if I say “no.”  I can pay now by agreeing to and participating in a 700 billion dollar bail out or I can pay for it later when all of my hard earned money in the stock market continues to head south, my real estate business comes to a crawl because of the natural consequences of the fall of these companies.  Either way I believe we are going to pay and our children and grand children are going to pay.  I believe it is time to get back to basics and teach our younger generations what financial responsibility, professional ethics and the place and value of money really means.  There is a part of me that wishes we all had the guts to let the empires fall.  At some point placating and bailing entities out needs to stop.  Is the time now?  Maybe, maybe not.  I am not sure.