A Somber Anniversary: Firing Line
The president flew to New York to mark an important anniversary a couple of days ago. It was the wrong one.
With the previous and current week full of poignant anniversaries, talking heads and politicians are asking the same rhetorical question: Have we learned anything?
The obvious answer? No.
The president chose the one-year anniversary of the collapse of
Lehman Bros.
to scold the financial industry and pat the administration on the back for averting a Depression. He pressed for increased regulation and warned that the industry was returning to its old habits, and he claimed that "too big to fail" is not going to be the policy moving forward.
But his calls for regulation are falling on deaf ears. Washington is bogged down in larger battles, and the momentum to reform the industry has stalled. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There obviously needs to be reform, but it needs to be targeted, as I have called for with health care. The administration continues to fish with hand grenades instead of going after specific problems.
There are always going to be idiots, snakes and people who want to make a quick buck. No amount of regulation can prevent this. The government missed the largest fraud in our nation's history, even as people in the industry provided it with solid evidence.
This is the same government that helped cause the financial implosion by putting people into homes they couldn't afford with the Community Reinvestment Act, and predatory lenders were only too happy to comply. And the obvious government backstop for
Fannie Mae
(FNM)
and
Freddie Mac
(FRE)
only boosted their misdeeds.
There are always going to be guys like Hank Greenberg, the former skipper of
AIG
(AIG) - Get Report
, who marked the anniversary of the collapse (and taxpayer rescue) of AIG as a guest commentator on
CNBC.
Why he's not playing wall ball with Allen Stanford is beyond me. Greenberg ruled AIG since I was born and was responsible for overseeing the creation of the financial products division (financial ground zero). He believes to this day that he had nothing to do with the failure of AIG. He was quoted as saying, "I don't feel any responsibility. How can I be responsible for something that occurred when I'm not there?" Wow.
The man oversaw the building and launch of the AIG "Titanic" and trained its officers. He set the course and ordered flank speed. But since he was off the bridge when the ship hit the iceberg, it's not his fault. He'd still be breaking big rocks into little rocks in a navy brig.
We need leaders on Wall Street who believe in accountability and responsibility, and that's impossible to legislate, especially when our legislators could also use a refresher course in those topics. "Do as we say, not as we do," seems to be the motto in these two areas.
In my opinion, the president would've been better served to visit New York on Sept. 11. The same day he was scolding Wall Street, local and federal agencies were raiding various locations in New York and Denver where they had uncovered suspected terrorist cells. I hesitate to call them "terrorists" since the administration no longer uses the term. We might offend them.
This week, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more troops are needed in Afghanistan and that we're in danger of losing our strategic advantage. Military translation: We're losing. He said the Afghanis and Pakistanis were "waiting on us" to show our level of commitment before they really commit their own resources.
In case you've forgotten, the president and members of his party have said Afghanistan was the war we should've fought instead of Iraq. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., N.J.) recently said there was little support in her party for increasing troop levels in Afghanistan.
Many people believe our move to socialize medicine mirrors that of the Soviet Union. A stronger comparison exists. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan and left in defeat nine years later (with a little help from the U.S.). We're on year eight and it's not looking good.
Instead of focusing attention on a real war this week, the president chose to fire an opening salvo in what could turn into a trade war. Late Friday, the administration slapped a 35% tariff on tires imported from China. This strikes me as tugging on Superman's cape.
At a time of record deficits, it doesn't strike me as wise to annoy the folks who are funding your rampant spending. Apparently the United Steelworkers are not "too big to fail." No tire companies (
Cooper
(CTB) - Get Report
,
Goodyear
(GT) - Get Report
) supported the tariff, which was the equivalent of the Joint Chiefs saying this isn't a fight we need to be in right now. The last thing a country just emerging from a "great recession" needs is an economic battle with our banker.
Firing line: The president signaled on Monday that he's in no rush to decide whether or not to commit more troops to Afghanistan. Instead of regulating an already heavily regulated industry, engaging in a health care battle that is spiraling out of control by the day, or starting an unneeded trade war, the president needs to focus on the real war American troops are fighting or we'll be marking more somber anniversaries.
Matthew "Whiz" Buckley is the Managing Partner of
, a business-consulting firm specializing in leadership development, risk management, and strategic planning for Fortune 500 companies and related organizations. Whiz flew the F-18 Hornet for the U.S. Navy. He's a graduate of TOPGUN, has close to 400 carrier landings, and flew 44 combat sorties over Iraq. He transitioned to the business world after he was scheduled to fly his first flight as an airline pilot on 9/11. Instead, he ended up flying combat air patrol over the U.S. He rose rapidly though corporate America, starting as Managing Director of Strategy at a Wall Street firm, to CEO of a financial media company. He is an internationally recognized speaker and combined his unprecedented experiences in the military and corporate America in the writing of From Sea Level to C Level.
