Wandering Into Wisdom

This blog chronicles the knowledge, insight and wisdom I encounter every day as a leadership consultant, executive coach, educator, father, friend and citizen. This site is dedicated to my father, Louis (Jack) Laughlin, who passed on to me an appreciation for wisdom. A special thanks to my friend Isaac Cheifetz, a businessman and journalist, who helped me understand the value of blogs and encouraged me to write one.

Who's Minding the Store*

Most experts agree that inadequate regulation of the financial industry caused a significant portion of our current economic troubles. The media has pointed to credit default swaps as an example of one such problem. In simple terms a credit default swap is like mortgage insurance that covers your lender in case you default on your mortgage. Well, imagine if the whole neighborhood could take out insurance on your mortgage, and get paid if you default. Now multiply that by tens of trillions of dollars on all kinds of securities, not just mortgages. Then see what happens when a lot of people start to default on their securities. Now ask who pays.