The Skeptical Optimist

Sometimes it’s hard to fathom how deep this hole of a financial crisis goes. For me, I’ve been reading about doom and gloom for weeks now and through the bulletins know about bailout plans, capital injection and what this means for the markets… Still when somebody comes up with a figure like 700 billion US dollars or a phrase like “trillions have been lost over the past few days” - it’s just really hard to get your head around these figures.

Of course, economists and experts say that because we’ve just had some boom times, what’s happening to the market is taking a while to trickle down the ordinary folk. But trickle down it will, in fact, some are likening what’s to come to a tsunami. We’re already seeing the foreclosures in the States and back here at home the sad plight of retirees who lost their life savings unwittingly investing in Lehman Brothers.

Where I’m feeling it the most is in my portfolio which has gone down by over 30 percent on paper. I’m just holding my breath and waiting it out… But I can’t help remembering that it’s a real privilege that I can do so, that I had set this money aside for investment purposes and have other savings that I can tap on for emergencies. Frankly, I can’t begin to understand what it must be like for those retiring or about to retire, seeing their nest egg wiped out like that.

I’m no expert on economics, but sometimes I wonder whether one of the reasons why we’re in this situation today is the greater cultural shift to a greed based, instant gratification society. A few years ago, my mother, who is now a retired junior college teacher pointed out a difference in the students she had taught over the decades; when she asked them what they wanted the most from their jobs previously, they said the most important thing would be to help others, as she neared retirement, most of them had one word for her: money. I encountered this impulse myself when I was nearing graduation in the States, a lot of my peers were going to luxe interviews for investment banks on Wall Street and talk on the senior campus was thick with whether JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs paid better.

Now, I’m not saying that I’m immune to all this talk. Who doesn’t want a bigger more comfortable apartment or a nicer car? I don’t have a maid, but that’s mainly because I can’t afford to hire one and rent a room for her away from my apartment so that she has more space for herself. I ration out high end meals and cut back on clothes and makeup for myself… Still, I wonder how did we get here? How did we become a society so focused on where to make a quick buck through investing in risky securities? Where do we get off taking on jobs not for passion or for the difference they make in people’s lives, but for the money?

Tags: financial crisis, greed, investment banking, jobs, uncertainty