A layman’s view on the US financial crisis

Continued from last week

The hard working American population slowly started to assume the well dressed corporate executive role and started to operate through lavish office compounds. Most of the hands on production work were slowly palmed over to other countries.

Americans pursued more glamour in their lifestyles. They receive enormous salaries as remuneration for their corporate executive role. This promoted less work and more glamour.

The American population who unconsciously took the reins of managing a huge portfolio of hard earned Japanese Investments and Middle Eastern petrodollars did not realise that they started to spend much more than they earned through their speculative businesses.

Enormous gas - guzzling luxurious vehicles became ubiquitous on US highways. Spacious, luxurious and energy consuming American households became the Icons of American neighbourhoods. Lavish and uncontrolled spending became the order of American life.

A large portion of food and beverage served on American dining tables started to go waste after every meal. Funding large international bodies, International policing, glamour, overseas travelling, paying of largest salaries, staying away from consumer goods production and ultra luxury living on earth full of unnecessary waste became the passion of Americans instead of hard work, modesty, thrift and honesty.

This wasteful behaviour of a nation reached the peak by consuming 40% of the world’s total crude oil production by less than 5% of the world population living in America.

Large corporations which borrowed from investment banks had only their wasteful executives and marketers on American soil. All their productions were located elsewhere. It took a couple of decades to realise that most of these corporations produced more losses than profits due to very high overheads incurred by the American employees.

It is doubtful whether Americans are conscious about this phenomenon that is taking place within America even today. The whole of America is similar to an individual who lavishly spends somebody else’s money irresponsibly.

Today America has already consumed and wasted many trillions of USD which is much more that the actual value of their goods and services taken in total for many consecutive years. The George Bush administration accelerated the process during his tenure by pumping additional trillions to fight completely unnecessary wars.

American gamble

The American gamble culminated by the declaration of bankruptcy by bank after bank in 2008 at the latest. Large corporations which obtained loans from investment banks cannot repay them with interest as they incurred losses over the years instead of profits.

The American government decided to immediately intervene and bail out the troubled banks which are a necessity to secure the confidence of those who invest on American soil.

It is the only way to continue the ‘new American way of life’ which is living beyond the mens at the expense of others. Definitely, the Americans will manage to convince the world that all is well and they will keep attracting more hard earned money until the culmination of the next financial crisis.

On each occasion, the results of the game came to light as different forms of financial crisis in the past; it was simply called recession and covered up. But the, total losses keep accumulating and each financial crisis is many times bigger than the previous in terms of total value.

The outwardly appearance of American glamour backed by the Hollywood is a black hole that attracts hard earned money concentrations channelled to America mainly through the Middle East and Japan.

When the CNN announces job cuts in troubled financial institutions, our attention is deviated and feels pity for those who lost jobs. We try to forecast the impact on our economies in terms of reduced consumption of those who lost their jobs in US.

This impact is negligible and it is not likely to have a sizable impact on small economies such as Sri Lanka. In general this financial crisis will not affect even the global economy at large making severe hardships at any particular corner of the world.

The Middle East will continue to sell petroleum and Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong will keep producing. What Americans have wasted was the savings of both worlds.

They will soon cover it up with their glamour and printing of more green bucks. The trend will continue until the petroleum producers and industrialised nations realise it otherwise.

American culture which doesn’t have deep roots to a specific religion or culture is virtually out of control in terms of spending. It will not consider ethnics in trying to grab the riches that they need to maintain their way of life. It can become more dangerous and ruthless when the going gets tough.

The greatest lesson that we can learn from this analysis is that we should genuinely contribute for production and must consume only the minimum requirement.

Preservation and practice of our culture with religious teachings that promote modest living in the only long term solution to face the woes that can paralyse a nation if gone uncontrolled. Switching off an additional light, cutting down an additional kilometer of travelling, planting a vegetable plot and avoidance of borrowing all contributes to our long-term survival as individuals or as a nation.

If the Americans do not slow down, they will keep wasting the accumulated savings of the world until their glamour lasts

Concluded