Trying Economic Times Opportunity to Reshape Financial System

We are not in the best of times, nor the worst of times. We are in these trying times when the shock waves of financial crisis are always reverberating in the news headlines. Ordinary citizens are left wondering what will happen tomorrow or the next day or next month with their jobs, retirement, savings or insurance. The uncertainty is contagious and worrisome. From the governments, institutions, firms, banks, companies, employers to individuals, no one can really say what's going on.

The world is gripped by the abstract global financial system. This system is believed to know how to take care of itself. That is the basic understanding of it. But now things have changed. The financial crisis has changed this belief. If there is one good thing that the crisis has shown, it is the global interconnectedness of the market. Not one is insulated or untouchable from the benefits or adverse effects of the movement of the market.

All over the world, the stock markets fluctuate. One day they go up; the next day they dive. With this unpredictability, the governments are forced to intervene through cash injection in the market or buying shares in the banks or companies. The US government, for example, prepared a $700 billion rescue package for ailing banks and financial institutions. Other countries set aside billions of dollars to cushion the impact of the reeling financial turmoil that began in the US. The UK, on the other hand, bought shares in its largest banks. It has haoped that with the money, lending from bank to bank will not be hampered and the security of the depositors will be guaranteed.

The first country to show vulnerability in the current crisis was Iceland. The threat of national bankcruptcy was real that the IMF stepped in and provided a loan of more than $2 billion. Ukraine, Hungary and Pakistan are also wanting to have access to the loan facility of the IMF.

I think these trying times are giving us an opportunity to recreate and reshape our financial system. It has been too greedy that ordinary citizens have become alienated to it. The EU is spearheading the move to come up with a better system other than what we have right now. The current system has apparently failed us to bring development to the people. It has created wealth, but wealth only to a few. It is time to create wealth for everyone.