Lessons from Washington in Poorly Defined Credit Market Bailout Plan

Interesting to note that the government-appointed expert overseeing the Treasury Department's "rescue" of the credit markets has noted that the government has not clearly defined the problem to be solved. (see paragraph three in this story.)

How do you solve a problem you have not defined? Could it be that our esteemed financial genius from Goldman Sachs, Mr. Paulson, is counting on nothing more than good feeling to get things moving? Not the first time in the history of government such a tactic has been tried for sure.

One also has to wonder what media organs like the Wall Street Journal were reading (or not reading) when they endorsed this plan.

All this reminds me again of how very valuable my Six Sigma education was, and how much gratitude I owe to Symbol Technologies for providing it to me, because the method drives home the point that you must define clearly what you are trying to accomplish. Or, you will just waste time and squander precious resources. Which is exactly what is going on now in Washington and on Wall Street.