A Changed Ecosystem

Do you feel it?
I do. I can feel the calmness. A deep sense of calm-knowing that whatever happens, it will be business as usual sooner or later. Its frightening really this feeling.

In the Economics of Trust, John Whitney asks " How often have you fixed a problem only to find that it crops up again - perhaps in a slightly different guise, but the same problem nevertheless...it will soon become clear that these problems most in need of a new theory". He then proceeds to list 12 of this often recurring problems. May I add one more? The recurring global economic slump.

It is said that when the human self is faced with a situation so dangerous and possibly fatal, the mind assumes a quality that it seldom bestows on the self. Calmness. The mind subdues every single one of the billion other chemical reactions and signals that are being sent out to the brain by every single organ in the body and it gives the self the gift of Calmness. At that moment the self is akin to a floating cocoon of peace and serenity in a raging ocean. This mechanism is designed to allow the self to calmly think through and take appropriate measures to ‘save’ it self from the impending danger.

And all these happen in a split second. The self wriggles it self from the mortal danger and just as quickly the waves of usual thoughts and feelings floods the self and life is back to its ‘normal’ chaotic amalgamation of feelings, thoughts, rights and wrongs.. At this point, even the self may be surprised to see the kind of heroic and Herculean tasks accomplished or the kind of amazing decisions made to save it self from the danger. Like how a mother of a teenage daughter beats off two parang wielding intruders with nothing more than a role of old newspaper.

But, it is also said there are times when the self goes on an extended period of calmness and serenity and sometimes never emerges back from this state. At this point we can conclude that the mind for some reason has ‘shut it self down’. The self now is ready to be institutionalized. You get the point.

The way business leaders and policy makers are behaving now is similar to the mind staying calm and composed while trying to preserve the self but the only problem is, it has gone on for far too long. I am afraid such calmness is no longer healthy. It looks more like Lunacy now.

The first ‘calm’ decision made by nations the world over was to formulate, announce and release billions of dollars worth of stimulus packages. Many of this has even expanded to its second and third versions. Billions of dollars were used to nationalize what used to be private enterprises. Billions more were channeled into failing businesses whose business models and ideas are grossly irrelevant to today’s business ecosystem. But save them governments did as their collapse will unleash a chain reaction that could wipe out hundreds of other businesses and eliminate millions of jobs. Then, we also hear of how millions of dollars were channeled into businesses that were in fact the perpetrators of the economic crisis we are facing today.

Companies and enterprises have also ‘calmly’ announced what they term as strategic decisions. They are decapitating their work force by reducing their numbers in the name of cost saving.

Everybody is happy as these decisions provides action and action always make people feel good. In fact any action can provide that feel good feeling especially when you can hardly grasp what the problem is all about in the first place.

No doubt we need monetary injections into the business ecosystem but how about injecting some Integrity and Accountability too. Don’t we want to make sure that 10 years from now, we don’t have to do this all over again? Don’t we want to cure the disease and not just the symptoms?

What was the cause of the quagmire we are in now if not for the Greed and Unbridled Entrepreneurial Spirit of the those who were out to make money and nothing else. A bad debt could be ‘restructured’ in such creative ways until they look like a product that one can own by borrowing more money (hence more debt) to buy the first debt. With enough people selling and buying, you have a guaranteed ecosystem where the economy is a false economy and the consequences is a foregone conclusion. Yet it did happen didn’t it?

So I think it is prudent to develop a set of safety measures; a new theory even, to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. We need to revisit the lessons of this crisis and turn them into learning points for future leaders; both in public and private sectors.

I for once do not believe in the hype the world over that the government is pumping in all that money for the benefit of the people. Most governments are for big businesses and not for the people! The least these governments can do for the ‘people’ is to ensure no more of tax-payers money is used to clean the putrid mess created by corporate greed.

The eco system has changed. It is no longer acceptable for us to be told that it is a normal economic cycle for the entire global economy to crash every 10 years. If there is a predictable cycle, there is a design. If there is a design, there is a designer. We know the designers of this crash. Go after them and make them into a lesson for the sake of future generations.

So, instead of asking for the resignation of Wagoner as the chief honcho of GM, the Obama administration should make him stay and clean up the mess and then ask him to go. Anyway, the auto industry was not the catalyst for the current crisis. They were just caught with their pants down.