brandondawson.org

Personally, I feel that there’s no reason to stick to any policy or concept dogmatically, but there’s one concept out there in business that’s always really rubbed me the wrong way, and that’s the old barb about the customer always being right.

The actual concept being conveyed by this missive is that the customer can always vote with their dollars, and buy elsewhere. This is very true, and very much worth keeping in mind. If your policies, products, or postures are out of step with the marketplace, you won’t be in business much longer.

But as we’ve transitioned into being a consumer-driven culture, some people have taken these words and twisted them into some kind of childish mantra, wherein they need to be given whatever they want, just because they want it. Alex Kjerulf gives us 5 reasons we shouldn’t be so quick to service the needs of ultra-demanding customers on positivesharing.com.

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Yes, that’s right. Bear Stearns collapsed. Here’s their 5-year stock chart: [link]

And today that graph will go from $30/share to $2. The Fed this weekend, along with an additional quarter-point drop in the discount rate, agreed to fund Bear Stearns financial liabilities to the tune of $30 billion dollars at the same time JP Morgan Chase swept in and bought Bear Stearns, worth more than $60/share just five days prior to this writing, for a total of just $236 million.

Today’s the day. We’ll see if the Fed’s attempt to socialize these corporations’ losses from frivolous derivatives trading and freewheeling lending has had the intended effect, or if Bear Stearns’ spectacular collapse was just the first step towards the Second Great Depression.