My 2 Cents on the World Financial Crisis

Heading to Rennes, I was reading the French paper Ouest France. The editorial piece talked about the bailout plan that the European Union is planning to inject cash flow into the disproportionate debt of American and some European banks, in order to salvage this wreck called our economy. The amount: 1000 billion dollars. With astounding ease, and surprising speed, this amount was unblocked and ready for use to help those banking giants of the USA get out of the mess our credit-happy Western world is creating.

Inevitably, a sum like the one above leads one to think firstly, of where this money is coming from with such ease, and secondly, why is it so easily available during a financial crisis of the rich, but never to bail out the poor? The answer to the first question lies in the complicated lending system of Central Banks to other banks. The electronic games these institutions play everyday with deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and loans are nothing but numbers, that don't really affect the liquid totals of money in Central Banks. Each country, like they do with their petroleum, never really tell how much they have in their Central Banks, rendering the guessing game a nearly impossible one. But, when a situation like the one today arises, it is necessary for these institutions to drop their veil of secrecy and pump out some of their exorbitant reserves.

Countries and their leaders are all for using these sources of cash, as we have seen in the past two weeks, where everyone from India, China and Europe is scrambling to salvage the financial market. But as bankers jump from buildings, and people in the states lose their homes, we fail to see that this money being put into a capitalist market could have just as easily appeared for the millions of starving humans in our world today. For example, if the European Union were to invest 30 billion (less than 1% of what they've pumped into the US economy in the last week) every year, they could insure that 923 million people in the world, who go hungry everyday, receive the basic alimentation they need to survive.

Yet, where is this money going? It is going into saving a Capitalist system that focuses on instant gratification. The western "go happy with credit" society will buy anything, at anytime no matter if they are going into negatives in their accounts. Yet, it's this greed for posession and "well-being" that supports over 60% of markets in the world. Consumer and commodity goods have replaced basic necessities such as milk and bread in the revenue ladder of world markets. So, world governments are happy to dish out the dough that will temporarily stop the crash of a failed easy-credit system. But, we still have close to one billion people in the world with nothing in their stomachs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for a socialist system where no one purchases nothing, and we all share our crops. I'm all for spending my GST tax at LeChateau. But, as responsible citizens, we have to advocate for the intelligent and socially-responsible spending of our country's money into causes that are really worth fighting for. It's hard to know where to start from... I myself have no solutions, but I just wanted to share my reflections with you. I know elections just passed, but it's never too late to pressure our government to become more actively involved financially into the markets that really matter- not crude oil, or technology, but the market of humanity.
That's my 2 cents on the financial crisis...