Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Heartening Financial News

by Richard Crews

There seems to be, day by day, a swelling cascade of gloomy predictions about the economy by economists, politicians, and business pundits. I find this very heartening since, historically, this has usually been a sign that the bottom has been reached and things are starting to look up.

This sounds like a joke, but I mean it seriously. I suspect we will find when we look back historically that, although the road out is long and rocky, the bottom was reached in March 2009.

As to what the highlands will look like, that--THAT--is the key question. One financial pundit who was asked, "Will we ever get back to where we were a few years ago?" replied, "My God, I hope not!" Let us hope that the brave new financial world will be characterized by more sane leveraging, more transparency and accountability, sturdier regulation (in expertise, funding, and laws), and--hope against hope--less personally greedy, more socially conscientious operatives. We (they) need to keep in mind that we got here by building on what our parents provided us, and that what we do, we do not just for ourselves but for our children.

And also that, as Obama says, every child in the world is my child. True, this has been said many times before by many people, great and small--but NEVER by anyone so powerful and so well placed to make a difference. (The historical fact is that there has never been anyone in so powerful a position.)

Richard Crews