DependyMac: We Can Turn It Around

IndyMac Siezed: Now DependyMac

We have all seen the headlines about IndyMac's seizure last week, and have witnessed the subsequent fallout (plundering graphs like lightning bolts to the ground). Other banks now begin to suffer, as investors take back not only their trust but also their stock investments. Had anyone ever even heard of IndyMac before this catastrophe? Who are they, anyway? How dependent on the government are we going to become, if this keeps up? When will they let go of IndyMac?

My concern is not that the Fed is trying to take these over--clearly these guys run far from the metaphorical tight ship--but for how long will they have control? Forgive me for saying so, but it appears that the government is not so big on exit strategies, pretty much all the way around. Have we ever lost a civil liberty and gotten it back? What are the odds that we won't get IndyMac back either?

As an appropriate response, I believe that what investors should be thinking about right now is how to take the most responsibility (read: due diligence) for making ethical, informed, sensible choices. We can't clean the slate, but we can begin anew anytime. We just have to believe we can.

It occurs to me that what got us into this mess is a whole series of bad decisions, on both large and small levels. Being solutions-oriented both on a personal level and a community level is what is going to get us through this economic slump, I guarantee it. Now is the time to reach out to your circle of influence and offer them all the solutions, all the strategies, all the good referrals, all the credible resources that you have to hand.

Decision by decision, investment by investment, we have to remember that the larger markets only consist of individuals. Each greater body is only as strong as its weakest part, and as the next generation of real estate investors, now is the time to extend yourself to your circle of influence and strengthen them as much as we can.

Strengthening the tools and knowledge of each individual investor is going to help this economy in an amazing way. For it is individuals, in the end, that make decisions--not ephemeral committees. Individuals are the source of new ideas--even if it is credited to a think tank in general. Individuals are the only agents of change, the only real source of creation--and that's why it's a good reminder that individuals are you.