Korean Job Discussion Forums

ernie · Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Location: asdfghjk

my point is that corporate ethics (in a legal sense at least) means maximizing profit and nothing else. if a company decides not to maximize their profit for some moral reason, they can actually be sued by their shareholders.

sub-prime lending was within the law so many banks did it. many of these banks have gone under. their failure is not due to ethics, but to poor planning.

what makes you think i'm 'waving the white flag' to corporations? quite the opposite, in fact. you have to understand your enemy in order to fight effectively. if you think that corporations have a responsibility to 'maintain global security' or 'protect the earth' or whatever BS slogan is en vogue, you are not dealing with reality and therefore will never be able to change it.

it's disappointing that the free spirit of americanism so quickly turns into a government swaddletatorship as soon as the road gets a little bumpy.

the USA is NOT responsible for the economies of nations that choose to follow its economic advice. the USA is NOT responsible for maintaining a world currency, either. these countries are trying to have their cake (and nikes and SUVs) and eat it too.

wylies99 · Joined: 13 May 2006 Location: I'm one cool cat!

Look, I understand what you were trying to say, but smarter management thinks long-term and looks for real growth. It's possible to be greedy AND smart about it, too.

aka Dave · Joined: 02 May 2008 Location: Down by the river

The two principal events causing the sh*tstorm were American the housing bubble and the derivatives, where banks could give out risky subprime loans, and then sell them as investments to speculators, who could then chop them up and repackage them as "securities" (yes, oxymoronic). Bottom line, no one ultimately was holding the bag on the bad loans (except, well, all of us right now).

Some self-proclaimed geniuses (all right wing Republicans) out of business schools had computer programs/logrithms proving this was somehow self-sustaining.

Yes, it was self-sustaining, but self-sustaining like the zombie virus in one on the "28 days" movies, infecting the entire global financial system. Iceland went belly up on the basis of loans given to buy McMansions in Florida.

I think the American beef thing, et. al., is all irrational America bashing. However, the excessive deregulation of the American financial system (even Greenspan is copping to this) is the ultimate cause of this. And the fact that Americans thought they could sustain wealth simply by selling each other more and more expensive real estate was another delusion. I remember reading "You can't go home again" which has a a great account of the land speculation prior to the great depression. Same thing all over again.

hugekebab · Joined: 05 Jan 2008

hugekebab · Joined: 05 Jan 2008

aka Dave · Joined: 02 May 2008 Location: Down by the river

I read the other day that the bad paper is 10 to 15 trillion dollars wiped out of the American real estate market. On average it comes out to 110,000 dollars per property.

That's a spicy meatball for the global economy to swallow. It's not America's fault. It's the Bush administration and conservative, free market ideology that's to blame.

Why should I get the blame when I busted my butt to prevent these idiots from being elected in 00 and 04. I guess you could blame the folks who voted for Bush, although Clinton passed a crappy deregulation bill as well.

Anyway, inbout 10 days we'll have a new guy who can start taking out the trash.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/bill-clinton-do.html

relevant section at 2:45

Going very much against the media meme that the current financial crisis is all George W. Bush and the Republicans' fault, Bill Clinton on Thursday told ABC's Chris Cuomo that Democrats for years have been "resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac".

caniff · Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map

ChopChaeJoe · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Location: Seoul

Korea does a lot more trade with China than with America. America does too. More trade with China than with korea, I mean.

If you're not continuously updating your skills, you're headed for a fall.

aka Dave · Joined: 02 May 2008 Location: Down by the river

sojusucks · Joined: 31 May 2008

I remember reading some articles that blamed the declining Korean economy on the withdrawal of foreign investments (where foreign seems synonymous with American).

Sounds like we might either (A) being set-up for the blame and/or (B) Korea has no realistic idea of what is rationale as an external view of Korea (why not make everyone think and act like a Korea?, yeah nationalism!).