Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Global Rate Cut in Reaction to Continued Equity Market Declines and Lending Problems



Global Central Banks acted in a coordinated way this morning to lower interest rates. This is a good thing. Central banks need to show they can and will work together. What was especially impressive to me was that CHINA also acted. Will this be enough to put some floor below the equity market declines and declog the lending pipes? Likely not, but at least they threw out another airbag. Check back later today for a longer piece on the continued crisis.

A few words on the debate last night. Once again both candidates were disappointing. They had America’s attention, the opportunity to really tell us what they stood for and why, and it was the same old speech and the same old lines. It is not that I expected them to change their tunes, but at this moment of economic insecurity, we deserved more. On the economy and the crisis Senator McCain said he was going to get the government to buy up loans! What?? Senator Obama leaned on the rescue package just passed for ideas with little of anything new. Neither one took the opportunity to explain to American the 10-15 factors that contributed to this crisis thus allowing them to extend the dialogue beyond the finger pointing at predatory lending, Fannie and Freddie, and Wall Street. For all their calls for TRUTH and TRANSPARENCY they are modeling little of it. They need to be willing to get in front of this ‘great country of ours’ and tell us the truth. It may be that they have been so busy campaigning they do not really know what is really behind the situation except for the few talking points they have been given which is truly frightening. The problems right now are big, very big, but also very solvable. What it will take however is SUPERIOR leadership, SUPERIOR economic insight, and a true willingness to make the tough decisions in the SHORT TERM to ensure
I am in search of the onlines versions of all my fav leadership articles! Stay tuned... better yet subscribe to my email list for themed newsletters coming later this year.

No comments: