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When governments from major economies around
the Globe took upon coordinated actions to rescue the near-collapse
financial system, many optimists thought the crisis had been
brought under control.
Governments once in their life times ignored business as
usual given the size of the financial crisis and provided huge
sums of money as guarantee
to banks, that were fast losing confidence in each
other and as a result sky-rocketing the inter-bank interest rates
on their overnight loans. (Overnight loans are loans that Banks
give each other at the end of each day. Banks with surplus borrow
it out to other banks in deficits at specific interest rates, which
is very often between 2 and 3 per cent).
These coordinated actions from the governments came as manner
from heaven to many financial institutions that were next in line
to collapse, just as many others had melted. But sadly enough, the
promises were short -l ife, given the havoc the crisis had
impounded on many economies around the world.
The crisis had translated into recession in some countries,
and even bankrupt some entire nations, like the Iceland saga. If
you haven’t heard, the wealthy nation Iceland went bankrupt
as the crisis kept hunting for more victims to claim. Its financial
system collapsed completely, with countries such as the UK losing
huge sums in saving. The incident even triggered the UK to raise
and apply the anti-terrorism act against Iceland in order to secure
the money lost. At the time of writing this article, it is still a
major row between the two countries and no agreement has been
reached yet, on how Iceland will pay back the Billions or pounds
lost in savings.
Even if the government rescue plans came late, it was better
than living the financial system to itself. While the counter
action that began in Britain under the auspices of Gordon Brown has
been emulated in many other nations, the outcomes are having little
effect on the economy even in the UK itself.
So what can be done to contain the situation that has fast
cascaded into a recession? Keynesianism is the answer!
"While adding more CCTVs" on the financial
system and calling for more government restrictions, governments
must open their wallet and sprinkle more currency into their
various systems through government spending.
The Gordon Brown Ideology (to provide guarantee for overnight
loans between banks) seem to be having very little effect, despite
being welcomed with both hands.
At this particular moment and from my humble perspective, the
most ideal thing to do will be to cut the interest rate even
further despite the looming inflation.
There must be a price, either the governments’ fold its
arms and watch the economy sink further into a recession or import
inflation through spending and interest rate cut. Governments must
make a choice, and that choice must be fast.
Inflation or Recession? The choice is theirs.
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