October 30th, 2008

What Consumers Can Learn From the Bank Crisis

3 Comments |

The financial turmoil that our economy is currently experiencing is regarded as an unprecedented level of turmoil. According to a United States Historian named Steph Friesier, “The time of wielding wealth is over.” What many people do not realize is that there is a lot that consumers can take away from this bank crisis that may someday improve how we relate to money and how we operate within the economy. The Wall Street bubble burst suddenly, and everything seemed to go completely insane, but that does not mean we cannot treat this time of financial crisis as a learning experience.

A few months before the Lehman Brothers company went bankrupt, an executive director within the company which once flourished put his luxury home on sale for a surprising $325 million dollars. Many business tycoons began to sell their luxury yachts and other properties, selling the apples of their eyes. Before this happened, no doubt had been raised about the United States superpower in consumption, as the U.S. had been acting as the engine in the entire world economy, its powerful consumption determining the United States’ role in the global economy as a bellwether. Should the United States consumption diminish in any way, the driving force propelling the economy of the entire world would be knocked from its axis.

What consumers can learn from the bank crisis has a lot to do with tracing the causes to this financial storm. There are numerous different ideas floating around as different nations try to make sense of what has occurred and why it has so easily crippled the economy of major nations around the globe. How can one nation have such a powerful impact on the economies of all other nations across the map? There is an uncommon consensus among economists hailing from different nations, and no one is able to unanimously pinpoint the true influence that the consumption concept imposed itself upon. What snapped the credit links? What created the fall in Wall Street?

Once the balance of consumption collapsed, the new balance would not come into creation quickly enough, causing the world’s economy to seek a brand new bolstering point in order to keep some semblance of balance in place. The ongoing process of dealing with the banking crisis is a process in itself that is being used to seek a new point of economic growth as well as an all new driving force for the world’s economy. Not only is the economy falling in the United States, but like the chaos effect it is driving changes in other nations and drastically shifting the balance of power, at least as far as economics are concerned.

What consumers can learn from the bank crisis, above all else is that the world’s economy is a fragile thing that can easily lose its balance when things go awry. As the United States grapples with its issues regarding lending and credit, other countries and continents are seeing intense changes in the way their economies function.

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3 Comments

  1. It’s good to read a nice, straight forward and well written article about the bank crisis that doesn’t bombard people with technical jargon.
    Keep up the good work!

    Warren Phillips at 1:54 pm on November 2, 2008
  2. Can you please show your source of this: “executive director within the company which once flourished put his luxury home on sale for a surprising $325 million dollars”

    $325 million dollars seems to be a tad high (about $322 million too much) for an E.D. at an investment bank.

    Bryan at 9:37 pm on November 3, 2008

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