For the last several years, there have been various concerns about the economy, financial institutions, and unemployment. In the absence of any real economic improvement, there are some serious questions that come to mind:
- Can the weak economy be "fixed" or must we simply wait for everything to work itself out on its own?
- Were banks the primary cause of current economic problems by their risky investments with financial derivatives and sub-prime mortgages?
- To whatever extent banks were a big part of the underlying problem, why aren't banks being forced to change?
It is of more than passing interest to note that the Dallas Federal Reserve just completed a study in which they concluded that the financial cost of the recent banking and economic crisis was $14 trillion and that it is still hurting the economy (and will for an unknown number of years into the future). Where was economic planning when we needed it?