Saturday, February 21, 2009

Being Worse than the Great Depression

Two renowned financial experts Paul Volker and George Soros said that they see this global financial crisis as worse than the Great Depression. I wonder if globalization has anything to do with this. Both speak about world markets and the rapid bottomless decline.

Is there a way of returning to the simplicity of community banking? Should we return to the Gold Standard as opposed to a standard of debt? God forbid we lose our Triple-A credit rating. Who then would buy our treasury bills and hold us hostage to certain policies?

We have become a complex global community of debt.

4 comments:

wmmbb said...

The key ingredient in banking is trust, not least between banks. It turns our BOA used to be a community bank, at first called The Bank of Italy. Here is quiet a story,via Huffinton Post:
"Gianniani{the founder] became a legend right after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. After his bank burned down, he set up a wooden plank on two barrels along the street and made loans. All it took was a handshake and he later said every loan was repaid."

Judith Ellis said...

Yes, wmmbb. I read this story and also saw an interview with Gianniani's granddaughter. She had scathing things to say about the leadership of Bank of America, even though she owns an incredible amount of stock. By the way, I hope you have come across my pieces on the HuffPost.

wmmbb said...

I will be looking in future.

Judith Ellis said...

Cool!