As our Governments and central banks try to rescue a dying economy or more importantly in their view, the stock markets, I personally can’t help thinking that they are going about it all the wrong way. Adding more money to the markets and dropping interest rates to negative will just add fuel to the fire.
I find it strange that we are copying play by play the Zimbabwean and Venezuelan economic models of printing money when economic production is at a standstill. Why would more money help this situation? Would it not be wiser to stop expenses by freezing rent, mortgages, taxes, social security and loan payments? As we are now all at home who in their right mind wants to take out a loan to start a business, pay suppliers or most importantly pay salaries and then be in a hole of unserviceable debt, without knowing when the business will resume or generate income, let alone make a profit.
In my view what we are going through is as severe as the consequences of a World War, if not worse. During war times we get to be industrious, produce to meet the demand of our troops, be innovative to obtain advantages over our enemy and unite to confront our enemy. With the Coronavirus we are currently told, and rightly so, to stay home and to do nothing in order to fight an enemy we cannot see and for which we blame each other – for creating and spreading – further dividing us and making our invisible enemy stronger and harder to defeat.
We need to confront this economic enemy in a whole new monetary way. There is a need to suffocate the demand for money, by stopping the requirement to make payments that are not essential in this time of war. Our stimulus should be targeted to the provision of food and basic needs alone. We need to forget about the stock markets as this disease is like the conventional enemy, which in war times targets your most vulnerable and weakest points and has done so by targeting our current economic system.
Why will stock markets go up if our companies are paralysed, markets are limited (lack of free market), and consumers have no need to or are unable to purchase products or services. There is no trickle-down effect in this market as there is no wealth creation in this current market. We are animals of habit and we fear the unknown and this is undoubtedly scary for us all, but with Brave and Strong leadership that deals with the problem in a whole new way we can overcome and be stronger in the future.
I believe this crisis will change everything, the way we see our wealth, the way we keep our wealth and the way we make our wealth. I also believe it will get much worse before it gets better, especially if we keep throwing Stimulus fuel onto the fire. Our critical focus now needs to be to beat the physical virus, halt the financial bleeding and build unity via hope for the future. No more blame, no more old solutions to new problems and there is a need for clear and transparent thinking of what is important for our new economic system. This is urgent.
If you don’t agree with the above, awesome as it means you at least thinking for yourself or it might just mean you a week or two behind in the Coronavirus curve. It’s our opportunity to decide on our future and how we hope to never again be in a similar situation due to greed, narcissism and no respect for our planet or each other.
For us to get out of this hole, the first thing we must do is to stop digging and let’s climb out of the hole together.
this article was posted at link to leaders, 20/03/2020.