Pen Meets Paper: Opinion on the Financial Crisis
We are now heading into the third year after the official 2008 recession with uncertain but hopeful predictions predominating in the mainstream media. You see, our financial system is essentially being viewed as a kind of natural phenomenon, like the weather, with forecasters in abundance offering their predictions of future storms and other events of significance. All the while failing to observe the fact that the financial system is purely a human creation, just like our civil aviation system, for example.
Now, ask yourself this: If you are about to buy an airline ticket to fly to Europe, for example, would you contact a “civil aviation consultant” to find out the likelihood of whether the plane would make it there in one piece? If that was deemed necessary, I doubt whether many people would buy airline tickets.
However, if you are interested in financial transactions, you may be well served consulting an astrologer before even trying. My question is this: Why on earth do we put up with this? Why are our brains so numb that we have allowed the central nervous system of our civilization to be turned into a casino for the wealthy?
Please shake your heads and wake up. Something is terribly wrong in the world of financial transactions, and the way we are being told that everything is going to be OK.
We are being “informed” that the balance sheets of large financial institutions are now healthy again after allegedly nearly suffocating in red ink only two years age. The opposite is the case for sovereign governments. Their balance sheets are floating in red ink drained from the now “healthy” banks. And leftover remnants of red ink are safely drying up in “Special Investment Vehicles” parked safely out of sight in private vaults, waiting for the color to change to green before re-emerging back onto private balance sheets.
The only sane way out of this mess is for thinking people to take the time to understand what is going on and then take remedial steps to deal with the situation.
Hiding in our own little holes just doesn’t cut it. It simply allows a small group of people to do whatever they like. And the more aggressive they are, the more they need to be opposed. Whatever happened to the spirit of our forefathers and mothers?