Yes We Can

Yes We Can

Economic Concerns:

No matter how you figure it - our personal economic situation is not as healthy as we would like it to be - and on the macro scale things seem even worse. How did all this happen - who is to blame - what are we going to do to get ourselves out of this mess?

Not to be too simplistic but GREED has been the cause of most of our economic difficulties. Banks getting involved in investment schemes to improve profits for shareholders (and their executive bonuses). People, primarily in the United States, taking out mortgage loans they could not repay from banks that should have never provided these loans in the first place and then "selling" them into the market place as "asset based securities" that no one fully understood but "promised" good returns. Lax or non-existent regulation that provided no oversight on hedge funds and allowed excess leveraging and other questionable market practices.

Many governments were caught up in debt schemes as well as not managing their affairs and face what for an individual or business would be bankruptcy. This is serious business as much sovereign dept is held widely and could result in world wide economic disruption. There is no doubt that the pain will be shared by all.

What to do? Get the banks out of the investment business and back to taking deposits and responsibly making loans (like Credit Unions). Provide more regulation - make hedge funds fully transparent - limit "short selling", currency trading and other practices that can distort the market. Create conditions conducive to mutually beneficial world trade.

And for the average consumer - the "engine" of our economy - is it not time to reconsider our role and our "requirement" and "responsibility" to "spend - spend - spend"? There is good reason to believe that is why we are in the "mess" we are in today - not just our economy, but our environment and our quality of life. At one time the consumer did not rely on credit to support their lifestyle. But through advertising - longer shopping hours and availability of easy credit, personal debt exploded. Who benefited? - the banks of course and the credit companies (often one and the same). Our orgy of consumption provided us with many more "things" largely from China (one of the worlds largest polluters due to their rapid industrial expansion to satisfy our "needs" which were largely financed on credit).

We are being forced to recognize that "the party is over". It is time to soberly reevaluate many things. We have simply been consuming too much of our finite recourses and attempting "growth" at unsustainable rates. We live in homes too big, drive vehicles too large and inefficient, eat too much of the wrong foods, have too much "stuff" and are too much in dept.

We need to redirect our resources to those areas that are more beneficial to ourselves and our environment. The other pages of this website suggest areas where this can be accomplished. It's up to you. Interested in learning more check out www.newint.org

We welcome your comments at info.yessudbury@gmail.com