There is nothing that happens in the world today for which the economy isn't responsible. Corporations are going down by the boatload, and they are seen like Oliver Twist before the governments going "More, please sir".
But are we being realistic here? One headline recently caught my eye "Icy Economy fells Nortel". Like Nortel wasn't having major crisis before -- poor leadership and a flurry of bad business deals? No...all of a sudden it is the fault of the economy, because, hey, it is an easy scape-goat for all that ails the world.
The reality is that this is a proverbial chicken and egg scenario...what came first...lack of vision and leadership on the account of corporations, greed by the investors and aspects of the banking sector -- or the economic apocalypse?
Well, my money (that little that I still have left) is on the poor leadership/lack of vision and of course the deadly sin of greed. You see, the US automakers acted like nothing in the world could ever touch them....so they kept on ignoring the signposts and kept making cars that no-one wanted to buy. And then of course the banks got into these lending schemes and poor decisions..which showed that the financial sector just seems like one big Ponzi
scheme, with the same money being promised over and over again...and when the music stopped, so did the economy. And of course there are all those investors, who are now crying fowl (pun intended), because they got into bed with the likes of Bernie Madoff...which goes to prove the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
So let's give the Economy a break....it is not the reason for all that's happening...the Economy is having a nervous breakdown...because all of those business Titans out there....have finally had their decisions come home to roost.
But are we being realistic here? One headline recently caught my eye "Icy Economy fells Nortel". Like Nortel wasn't having major crisis before -- poor leadership and a flurry of bad business deals? No...all of a sudden it is the fault of the economy, because, hey, it is an easy scape-goat for all that ails the world.
The reality is that this is a proverbial chicken and egg scenario...what came first...lack of vision and leadership on the account of corporations, greed by the investors and aspects of the banking sector -- or the economic apocalypse?
Well, my money (that little that I still have left) is on the poor leadership/lack of vision and of course the deadly sin of greed. You see, the US automakers acted like nothing in the world could ever touch them....so they kept on ignoring the signposts and kept making cars that no-one wanted to buy. And then of course the banks got into these lending schemes and poor decisions..which showed that the financial sector just seems like one big Ponzi
scheme, with the same money being promised over and over again...and when the music stopped, so did the economy. And of course there are all those investors, who are now crying fowl (pun intended), because they got into bed with the likes of Bernie Madoff...which goes to prove the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."So let's give the Economy a break....it is not the reason for all that's happening...the Economy is having a nervous breakdown...because all of those business Titans out there....have finally had their decisions come home to roost.
1 comment:
From my blog:
An interesting aspect of the current financial meltdown is that nothing has actually changed except perspectives.
Think about it. One day everything was fine, then the Bush economic guru announced the world was coming to an end if his friends in the financial sector didn’t get 700 billion dollars of the taxpayer’s money the very next day, then the financial world did come to an end, more or less.
In a capitalist economy, goods only have the value people are willing to pay for them. Paper things like mortgages and stocks have no intrinsic value and they never did, so the value of paper can go from insanely high to nothing in a moment.
What we have to remember is the capitalist system was designed with real things in mind. Houses and cars and other real goods still physically exist and they still have value. What we’re finding out now is the actual value of these things, as opposed to the paper value.
That’s exactly what capitalism is designed to do and I’m quite certain it would work, if only the bankers and the politicians would let it.
Post a Comment