Talk Back Finance

The financial crisis has had a lot of attention on the news on television and the radio and then in the newspapers. Too much of it was devoted to blow by blow accounts of the issues without any real help and support for the general public. Of course panic set in. What would you feel if you thought your money was running out of your super and bank accounts? Fortunately leaders have started to lead instead of blowing hot air. They are daring to make decisions which will stem the flow until better solutions can be put in place by people who ought to be able to manage this. It is not all bad. We have worked out we need some regulation. We have worked out we need our finances in the hands of reliable people. We have realised that some deals haven’t been deals at all, they have been rip offs. So in a short space of time we have had the magnifying glass on world finance and we have seen the details…and hasn’t it just been all in the detail? Well, yes. Things need to be built properly. Our radios have been buzzing . The announcers who have been running talk back shows have come into their own and demonstrated just how skilled they are. They have led the citizen enlightenment programmes and a lot of it has been self help through talk back. The radio announcers have sometimes organised 3rd party experts to be on hand to participate in discussions and it has been a real think tank. There are a lot of people who know a lot who get on the phone and talk. When the experts are there they put a perceptive on it and the announcers have been asking some really pertinent questions. Who would have thought finance could be interesting, amusing, entertaining and so absorbing? The best thing is a lot of ideas have come out which could be followed up. One of the obvious ideas is to encourage part time work, both to keep older people in the work force, open up opportunities and to share the financial burden . There are always people on hand then who can do the job, because more people are skilled in it and the full time workers are not over worked nor over paid. An idea, but it might be useful to us. People are not short on ideas and I think our government has started to listen. This is democracy in action. it has been good!

Top Five Global Problems

Image via WikipediaWe seem to have a few problems lately in the world. Not just easy to deal with problems…real , life threatening and planet endangering stuff. My top five would be:

Global warming
Health
Nutrition
Finance
Nuclear weapons

Any one of those has other associated issues. Global warming is affecting our food production, water, species and weather. Finance not only covers the share market meltdown but also the abject poverty in this world, the unequal distribution of wealth and then global financial practices. We have created these problems and we have worked really hard to create them. The only ones we seem to be able to manage and make headway with are health and nutrition. We have been hammering that everywhere and the message is getting through so the changes are occurring. We need signs that we, as a species, can actually create a world that thrives.

The World Market

Image via Wikipedia“This created this huge bubble of debt and we’re seeing the consequences today,” Mr Tagliaferro said.

Absolutely. This hasn’t happened overnight. G7 doesn’t seem to have helped much, but then they are politicians. G20 might be better since we actually have the finance ministers together and far more countries involved, so there is some chance there will be some useful decision making. Hot air is not helping. Panic is not helping. We need a plan to help us help the world. In crisis you need a crisis management plan and you need your strategies. You need to be stemming the flow, applying the first aid and then gathering data so that you can treat the problem effectively. This article is the closest I have found to help. What we seem to be lacking is advice and suggestions to all the citizens of affected countries so that each day we can be helping the situation. Watching the stock go down, watching Wall Street, Iceland and Europe flounder is all very well. We need to be more practical. We are all jumping for joy the petrol prices have come down but that may well create some problems and in any case that hasn’t registered at the pumps. Why not? It did when the barrel price went up. So , the financial gurus have probably been consumed with the intricacies of last week. We need some of them to stand back and advise us.

Panic

Image via Wikipedia“The current situation calls for urgent and exceptional action,” finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations said following their meeting in Washington.

Really? So where is it then? If this is the best G7 can come up with then we need more effective leadership, don’t you think? With leadership like that we are in for a tough run and the truth is, we shall have to look after ourselves. We have done it before and we shall do it again. We have been the G7 the world needs. There are a lot of people out there who know so much and these are the people who will help stabilise the market. They won’t be talking about it, they will be doing it. And that’s the point of this exercise, isn’t it? Haven’t we leaned now that we actually need to co operate as a world to fix the damage of leaders who have taken us from one mess to another? The domino effect is starting to take place already. Doesn’t take long. Iceland is in trouble and that in turn is having an impact on things like properties in other countries. Iceland was doing really well but now it isn’t. A lot of people are going to get hurt by this because a deregulated market has some big black holes which just suck up money. Free enterprise is going to cost a lot of people dearly. Democracy is going to look rank and people will have a long hard look at human nature. The soul searching and reflection will happen but we actually need some good crisis management in place. We need to know what to do that will help. When we talk about democracy we generally mean freedom of speech, fair trade and reasonable business practices. We are finding out that deregulation and free market enterprise can wreak havoc. G7 needs to sound as though it means business and it needs to sound as though it can lead us. If not, we’ll talk to each other and sort it out. This is why it is so important to have leaders who can communicate honestly, openly and intelligently with each other.

Financial Panic

Image via WikipediaIf this article is anything to go by, then we are all suffering from irrational fear. A lot of people will be watching their retirement funds float into the ether and then be confronted with having to return to work. It has been such a grand plan for so many to retire early and to have those dreams dashed would be upsetting. We do seem to have a lot of people who are just retiring though and then no one to support the economy. I don’t actually think we can afford to have that many people leave the work force because it puts a burden on the young, inexperienced workers coming in, the older ones still there and then there are noticeable skills gaps. When people are coming up to that time when they are leaving work, then you don’t actually get much out of them and it seems for the whole year they cruise and look after themselves. That all puts a strain on so you can understand why young workers are tiring of baby boomers holding on to it all, as they put it. If this financial crisis shakes up a few people at work, I’ll not be sorry because it means we’ll all be pulling our weight and it is vital experienced are there to train the new ones coming in. They need proper mentoring and support so they can feel comfortable. people are starting to comment that various businesses are making it up as they go along. Under these conditions they probably are!

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Financial Crisis

Image via WikipediaOur money situation just didn’t happen just like that. It’s important to respond and not react. It’s going up, down and all over the place. The great outcome of this is that people are pooling their thinking resources and some really interesting views and explanations are being heard. Radio stations and the Net are coming into their own as they share news and views very quickly and effectively. We are really very fortunate to have an ageing population because they have a wealth of knowledge and experience on which to base some interpretations of this market. Then we have some real whizz kids out there who understand how the new terms and ideas work and can interpret that for us. The big plus of this situation is there is no generation gap. The age groups are working together harmoniously to bring some sense and sanity into all of this. Firstly it brings us information. Secondly it is bringing us strategies and thirdly it is getting so many people to think better about the current situation. The whole world is online and we are able to share our views , knowledge and experience. We are able to get information quickly and then there are people who are showing us what to do with that information. Money crises are not a bit fun and people are tearing their hair out. We just need to have confidence in our connectivity so that international experts can help us sort through this in a more comfortable way.It really is a challenge and it’s a test of whether we actually have sufficient knowledge and know how to competently steer the global markets! The good news is there is plenty of good information out there to help you sort through any decisions you might have to make.