Is the World a Poorer Place As We Enter 2013?

In truth, yes and no, no because fundamentally nothing has changed, but yes because, we have been mismanaged and on a colossal scale. What am I talking about? Management, but management on a scale that for most of us is inconceivable.

What was the great economic crisis that hopefully we are recovering from? Miscalculation, poor judgement and miscalculation on a colossal scale. Miscalculation by whom and how? On the part of the establishments we unwisely thought we could trust.

So, we have learnt from our mistakes, punished the guilty and set forth into the New Year having learnt from our mistakes, yes?

Incredibly no, across the World the very people that got us into this mess have been bailed out, to the tune of untold billions of dollars. Why should that be, I’m lost for an answer, but sadly the fall guys have benefited very little from this largess.

Some facts, sorry, but as a European, I am more aware of what is happening in Europe, than elsewhere. In Ireland, a country with a population of some four million their banks were bailed out to the tune of some $150,000,000. Any of you have a calculator handy, because, these figures are insane. They represent  a form of insanity.  So Ireland is out of the danger zone, everything is wonderful? Nope, not at all, this money was used to bail out the very people that caused the problem in the first place. Maybe I am missing something, overlooking a crucial ingredient, if so, please set me straight. If a small fraction of this money had been distributed amongst the population of Ireland there would be no crisis. People would be working, spending and feelings of confidence for a better tomorrow would have returned. It has not, this huge amount of money disappeared into a black hole called banks.

In Europe the ECB, the C entral European Bank, loaned one trillion Euros to European banks at 1% for three years. Does your calculator stretch to trillions, mine does not. No matter, this is an eye wattering amount of money.  So everything is rosy, things are looking up? Not one tiny bit, all of this money was used to shore up tottering banks, little, or nothing reached the real economy. The real economy? You and me, the guys that buy cars, improve our houses and drive the wheels of employment and our countries.

Ok, call me a simplistic idiot, but are these not the very people that created, through greed, the problem in the first place? The net affect of this generosity for the economies of Europe has been zilch. Like 'Al Capone' characters this money disappeared into the back pockets of whom? The very people that led us into this mess. What does that indicate? That we are effectively stupid and have learnt next to nothing. Did the banks say thank you? I doubt it; it is their entitlement, right?

There is something very wrong here, the crash was not caused by ‘Joe Doe’, the window cleaner, but others, the smart ones. The crash was caused by the very people that ‘Joe Doe assumed he could entrust with his hard earned cash.

One of life’s lessons is that we learn from our mistakes. Have we, have we truly? If not we should feel ashamed for the hardship we have caused.