Thursday, March 5, 2009

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

Can it be that Citigroup might follow the footsteps of Bear Stearns, Wachovia, Merrill Lynch & Lehman Brothers? Will it be swallowed whole by a rival, like JPMorgan Chase or will it go belly up and disappear. The mightly financials and the mighty companies are falling; GE is begging for mercy and GM finally admitted today that it is not a viable enterprise without bailout funds.

The very lives of these companies that have ruled the world for as long as I've known are collapsing. These mighty companies were the kings of the jungle, conjuring strength, agility and invincibility. Maybe if the Bellwethers like GE are cracking, this is a signal of the passing of an old era. Maybe these companies are not supposed to survive at all. Maybe these are all unsustainable business models.

The government is trying to address the financial meltdown by injecting all of those bailout funds into the system. But maybe the financial system as we know it is no longer viable, maybe we are trying to fix something that is already broken.

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