21st Sep 2008
Hey guys,
I am up early after our successful first workshop yesterday and watching Andrew Marr interview Gordon Brown about the current financial situation. Reading through all of the questions and answers one thing has become abundantly clear.
The world is flat...
Everywhere i turn I see more and more evidence that the boundaries of each country are dropping and the financial markets are becoming one. They used to say that if "the US coughs the world catches a cold", well it appears that "if anyone coughs the world sneezes". The financial markets are linked and are one now.
The problem that governments have faced is that they only control commerce within their borders. Gordon Brown said some like "This is clearly no longer sufficient to maintain the world economy. What is needed is an international regulator, an international Financial Services Authority which can police the financial markets."
I mentioned earlier that the world is flat, at every level I am seeing more and more moves towards a synergistic world economy, even places like India and China are linked to the world economy. This entire downturn has proven one thing to all governments (and investors should take the lesson as well) that from now on the news of the world is actually our news as well. Its unavoidable and will become more and more so, the internet, technology as well as outsourcing of services and manufacturing the world is one.
One of the other points Gordon made was, and I agree with him on this; the UK economy is a lot stronger than a lot of commentators will give it credit. I am confident that this will become more and more evident as we move into the beginning of 2009.
My prediction is still that the end of 2009 will see us recovering from this current downturn.
Live with passion,
Brett Alegre-Wood