Much has been said, read and being done about the global financial crisis. President Baraach Obama has signed the US$ 787 billion Stimulus Bill into law last Tuesday, February 17, 2009. Former President George W. Bush bailed out $750 billion and hundreds of millions of British pounds and European euros have been doled out by several European governments, yet many heads of states, governors of central banks and executives of commercial banks have opined that this crisis has still a long way to go since it is not yet under control.
According to Hector R. R. Villanueva, former press secretary of the Philippines, world economists have no idea how long it will take for this troubled financial situation to stabilize and how it will play itself out.
That is, the global recession is unexpectedly more firmly establishd and the influence more widespread than earlier diagnosed. It is the worst economic crisis in nearly 75 years, but mercifully it is being tackled frontally and resolved with dispatch by better communications among leaders; more advanced database; and passage of financial stimuli by respective Congresses and Parliaments.
It follows naturally that whatever new political and economic order will emerge in the West after the meltdown will also affect emerging economies, such as, the Philippines, hopefully for the better.
Everybody must understand that President Barack Obama has no time to entertain small countries as his focus is directed at the domestic US economy, and the declining influence of the United States in world affairs.
Undoubtedly, the current financial crisis has greatly frightened consumers vis-à-vis the future, and businesses as they see the value of stocks plunge, and in response they have drastically retrenched, thus making the situation worse.
The fact of the matter is that the United States is not only bleeding continuously with the unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the various financial stimuli, while urgently needed at this moment, will not only level the greater budget deficit but will also have to be repaid by future generations of American taxpayers.
You be the judge. (For comments and views, please e-mail: chaff_fromthegrain@yahoo.com.ph)
