Show us the money they cried ! All $700 billion of it please but in a startling rejection by the US House of Representatives the Rescue package was torpedoed out of sight .
Both Republicans and Democrats made political hay out of the global disaster while their leaders counselled diplomacy across partisan lines. As the worlds of Wall street and "Main street" collided politics became the"Weapon of Mass Destruction."
On a purely pragmatic level though, who would seriously put their name to such an unpopular Bill just weeks before election time ? In the aftermath of the drama that unfolded in Washington the repercussions of the controversy would be felt all across the world as the threat of a severe economic depression became even more imminent.
The frozen credit markets that have now set about a domino effect of catastrophic financial devastation as banks refuse to lend to each other and everyone else means misery and mayhem for all of us or does it ?
A Republican governement is pushed into nationalisation so there must be an urgency to bail out these bad debts . Some economic experts strongly disagree claiming that the only solution is to let the market ride these waves of turmoil out themselves and any Congress bill wuld not be nearly as effective as a solution from Wall stret itself. If the bail out plan had gone through at least tentatively confidence in the market would haveben restored and it would have immediately allowed liquidity to flow freely in the financial markets, which would ultimately mean that trading would carry on as before. Gradually the markets would settle. But the idelogical implications of such a move do not sit comfortably on the shoulders of men and women of principal. How could they let those Wall Street villains get away with it, when other businesses make bad and reckless commercial decisions they have to bail themselves out or go under . Ah yes but there is some argue, an even bigger issue at stake here far bigger than the moral implications of nationalisation by a republican government and that would be the threat of financial security for all the hard working Americn Citizens who already face enormous challenges that have deeply impacted their day to day lives . The high cost of fuel and food prices, the risk of unemployment and the down turn in the housing market have had a seriously debilitating effect on ordinary US citizens .
America like the rest of the global economy has been gorging itself on a big fat mountain of debt . The only sensible way to solve the crisis is most argue to rescue the Wall Street whiners and remove some of their freewheeling high rolling authority. After all if the public purse is going to be used to save the economy then it's only fair that some of their powers are curtailed . If there were industry safeguards and legal scrutiny on some of the more dangerous investments we may have been saved fom such testing times. Afer all it's not the first time the US has contributed to a a world wide depression and as interest rates creep higher consumers will be worse off. Pretty soon there could be a run on the banks and then the situation will rocket out of control.
These worrying circumstances have heralded a new era in the way we choose to live our lives as we succumb to a time of frugality and sensibilty and say goodbye to avarice and over consumption.
The back to basics approach of solving the national debt in the US as in other economies is to make rational decisions based on sound investment principles : in short for the man/ woman on the street spending less and saving more .
T he recent turmoil of the world's money markets has catalysed the need to think about our core values . If a nation's wealth is built on greed and crushing individualism then the "buy me now" society we have made for ourselves is bound to fall apart eventually. Compassion, selflessness, and above all responsibilty are the principles which should ideally underpin a great and just society that looks to the interests of all and not just a few.