The Lakers Don't get Bailed Out

Yesterday the Los Angeles Lakers did not care about anything work related, sure they showed up, put on their purple jerseys, laced up their shoes and stepped foot onto the court at the Toyota Center in Houston; but that was it.

The Lakers played as is it was not the playoffs, a sin that still is not excusable in a regular season game; yet far more reprehensible when it comes to pro basketball games in May. The lackluster approach is kind of like the approach that the government’s stress tests showed: nobody really cared too much.

The government cheated on this test by helping each one of the student aka banks in their efforts to pass these tests. In the event that a bank was not sufficiently capitalized to withstand financial panics, make sure that enough capital is raised, and last week the Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley issued $15 billion in common stock and bonds in order to close the potential gaps.

The problem with the teacher’s help here is that the students do not learn anything from these actions, they now know that someone will always give them a hand even at the brink of failure, and better yet a real second chance after a complete failure.

As the Lakers played with no sense of urgency, or with the prospect of taking a dominating 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets; the banks teetered through the stress tests with flying colors. Sounds like a paradox? Well, it is.

When it comes to the playoffs, it is win or go home. In this economic era, the private investors have the same option to win or go home, whereas the big banks have only one choice: to win.
Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson, said, “We're a little bit of a team that needs to have sometimes a spark put in us to play,” The Lakers lacked a sense of the necessity to win this game, because it was not absolutely necessary! The Lakers will show up on Tuesday night, and play like the game has some importance, and they will prevail in the series.

Makes you wonder how much more the economy can prosper if the government let’s the banks be like the Lakers were yesterday, let them fail, just for a day and then see them come back stronger than ever.