Moral Hazard
March 18, 2008, 8:08 am
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
Just this A.M., I was wondering about moral hazard: Aristotle? Heidegger? Rorty? Apparently none of the above. The insurance and bail-out industry according to David Leonhardt. Here in admirably brief compass: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/business/18hazard.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=David+Leonhardt&st=nyt&oref=slogin
And here the moral drama (“How the Mighty Are Pulled Down when Falling) with details about the fall of Bear Sterns; this bail out sounds more like a warning to all of Wall Street than a bail out. http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/saving-wall-st-for-now/
Hoping none of us had money in Bear Stearns (but how would we know?)!
In the short run (read GWB), I’d expect little more oversight/regulation and continued dependence on self policing. Even if things don’t get worse, that really won’t make them better.
Then there’s Eduardo’s poin tabove.
I am hoping the Barney Franks/Chris Dodd bill will get through Congress.
Everyone who owned shares in an S&P 500 Index indirectly owned shares in Bear Sterns because it was one of the companies that made up that index. So a wide swath of the investing public has been harmed to the extent that Bear Sterns implosion brought down the value of the S&P 500 index.