Although the heading of my today's blog may sound a bit cruel, nevertheless I would like to make a kind of comment on the crisis from a different angle. Within the art-sector - though not exclusively - the pain of dried-up grants and subventions is being felt quite heavily. Yet, as a manager, I am a bit amazed by the fact how things are going.
First and foremost, the crisis was not too unexpected. For financial experts and economists, it is already an obvious given, that a crisis is a cyclic occurrence, which we are faced with every 10-15 years. The sad thing is, however, that mostly we hardly ever learn from the previous. Despite these signals, those who are in fact the experts, are also the ones who deliberately create the next crisis. What did we learn from the hedge-funds? Nothing: We just jumped into a similar empty bubble.
Ever since the rise of Liberalism there is a group of people (mind you: wealthy people), who somehow are trying to find a way, to become more wealthy. And mostly at the expense of others, and to be more exact: the poorer masses. I am definitely not talking of solutions like those by Karl Marx (although, in the light of miserable poverty during the industrial revolution era, quite understandable). When we just take a look at the Great Depression of the 1930s, where through thorough government interventions of President Roosevelt, the United States were able again to slowly crawl out of the ditch. As we compare later the total opposite political programs of the let's say Reagan and the Bush (Jr) administrations, we see again sharp declines. And although Republicans complain about the Democrats, who - in their view - have a devastating economic policy, it is exactly the Republican administrations that cause soaring huge state deficits and an ailing economy, while the Clinton administration has left the White House with the biggest surplus in history.
History clearly showed, that Reagonomics, Thatcherism and other laissez-faire inclined politics have led our world economy to the edge,by becoming so greedy, that those empty bubbles (like the internet bubble, the finance bubble) were the obvious result of uncontrolled money-hording, which slowly has become a norm. Our society is hardly interested in culture or arts anylonger. What is cool nowadays, is a big jeep, a big house (with a number of rooms, you hardly will ever use yourself). Now that joy is over. And the crisis is again - like a catharsis - showing us a mirror, giving us a change - to cleans ourselves where we should earnestly ask; "what have we done?". Mind you that those CEOs or CFOs, who were heading with these companies into this mess (and they should have known in the first place), are - at worst - leaving the almost bankrupt companies with a multi-million severance package, while those, who were down the ladder face perhaps long-term unemployment, losing everything they have. Should we just tolerate such??? Well, we agreed somehow to let loose the control mechanisms, as we were so eager to reap the seemingly unlimited profits. Lulling ourselves into a comfortable worriless sleep. Another question springs up in my mind: Since economic theories - in their whole extent - can hardly withstand time and prove to be fully invalid after a number of decades, how can some Nobel-Prize winners seriously be convinced of their theories - knowing that economics is no dogma - or is it because they get the benefits of it too (as was the case in the LTCM crisis)?
It is perhaps time, finally to wake up and to reconsider our values; that perhaps we really don't need a jeep to bring our kids to kindergarten or for going to the supermarkets. Maybe other values in society - e.g. to enjoy reading, art galleries, concerts, are contributing far more to our character-building than that what we have been doing for the past years, by consumption-materialism beyond belief. Perhaps, this can be a good starting point to re-design our societies; to prioritise again, and choose for more sustainable values in life.
MS
First and foremost, the crisis was not too unexpected. For financial experts and economists, it is already an obvious given, that a crisis is a cyclic occurrence, which we are faced with every 10-15 years. The sad thing is, however, that mostly we hardly ever learn from the previous. Despite these signals, those who are in fact the experts, are also the ones who deliberately create the next crisis. What did we learn from the hedge-funds? Nothing: We just jumped into a similar empty bubble.
Ever since the rise of Liberalism there is a group of people (mind you: wealthy people), who somehow are trying to find a way, to become more wealthy. And mostly at the expense of others, and to be more exact: the poorer masses. I am definitely not talking of solutions like those by Karl Marx (although, in the light of miserable poverty during the industrial revolution era, quite understandable). When we just take a look at the Great Depression of the 1930s, where through thorough government interventions of President Roosevelt, the United States were able again to slowly crawl out of the ditch. As we compare later the total opposite political programs of the let's say Reagan and the Bush (Jr) administrations, we see again sharp declines. And although Republicans complain about the Democrats, who - in their view - have a devastating economic policy, it is exactly the Republican administrations that cause soaring huge state deficits and an ailing economy, while the Clinton administration has left the White House with the biggest surplus in history.
History clearly showed, that Reagonomics, Thatcherism and other laissez-faire inclined politics have led our world economy to the edge,by becoming so greedy, that those empty bubbles (like the internet bubble, the finance bubble) were the obvious result of uncontrolled money-hording, which slowly has become a norm. Our society is hardly interested in culture or arts anylonger. What is cool nowadays, is a big jeep, a big house (with a number of rooms, you hardly will ever use yourself). Now that joy is over. And the crisis is again - like a catharsis - showing us a mirror, giving us a change - to cleans ourselves where we should earnestly ask; "what have we done?". Mind you that those CEOs or CFOs, who were heading with these companies into this mess (and they should have known in the first place), are - at worst - leaving the almost bankrupt companies with a multi-million severance package, while those, who were down the ladder face perhaps long-term unemployment, losing everything they have. Should we just tolerate such??? Well, we agreed somehow to let loose the control mechanisms, as we were so eager to reap the seemingly unlimited profits. Lulling ourselves into a comfortable worriless sleep. Another question springs up in my mind: Since economic theories - in their whole extent - can hardly withstand time and prove to be fully invalid after a number of decades, how can some Nobel-Prize winners seriously be convinced of their theories - knowing that economics is no dogma - or is it because they get the benefits of it too (as was the case in the LTCM crisis)?
It is perhaps time, finally to wake up and to reconsider our values; that perhaps we really don't need a jeep to bring our kids to kindergarten or for going to the supermarkets. Maybe other values in society - e.g. to enjoy reading, art galleries, concerts, are contributing far more to our character-building than that what we have been doing for the past years, by consumption-materialism beyond belief. Perhaps, this can be a good starting point to re-design our societies; to prioritise again, and choose for more sustainable values in life.
MS
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