"...A few weeks ago I watched the documentary No End in Sight. The film analyzed the current war in Iraq. While watching I realized I had never seen much footage of Iraq. Like others in the U.S., I have seen the 10 second video clips and narrow lens snapshots, but I don’t know Baghdad or Fallujah as detailed as New York City, San Francisco, Miami, or the suburban and rural landscape of the States.
Given my ignorance of Iraq, I have failed to appreciate the complexity of warring there. Like other US citizens, when President Bush declared victory in May 2003, I believed the war in Iraq was over; however, the worst was yet to come. Similarly, although bulls on Wall Street are declaring that the credit crisis will be defeated in early 2008, the objective data continues to indicate the worst is yet to come.
Like my ignorance of the Iraqi landscape, most U.S. residents appear to be completely ignorant of the banking landscape. Most of my friends (including doctors, lawyers, PhDs, other professionals, and even some in finance) are what I call “financially retarded”: they spend more than they make, or save less than needed for retirement; they are ignorant of the Federal Reserve, how money is created, and exactly how a bank makes profits; and, they have no clue how many variables affect money and the economy. Consequently, we are still far from accurately pricing banking and financial stocks because many people still have no idea how bad things may become..."
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