::Rants-Global Financial Crisis? Been thinking allot about the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) or the US term, GFM (Global Financial Meltdown). I have been thinking about it because since I returned from Bangladesh in January, I have found myself thinking about the many people who I met in that country who's lives are affected far more dramatically, than people here in Australia.

It is a difficult conversation, because you can easily find yourself comparing misery with misery. That is not my intention. Having been made redundant three times in my life means I am aquainted with the pain that financial uncertainty brings. However, in each situation, we were ok. We have an incredible series of safety nets to fall back on in times of financial distress in a place like Australia.

Not so in Bangladesh. The nation is very poor, and so many individuals I met face pretty bleak futures, because of the GFC.

However, the thing I found most difficult to cope with is the term we give the phenomenon. Global: Well, that's a no brainer. Financial: it effects all kinds of financial systems, or the various parts of the one global financial system. Crisis: hmmmm, this is where it gets interesting.

In the early 2000's, George Bush had his administration use the term "Climate Change" as oppossed to the aforementioned "Global Warming". The term "Global Warming" alarmed people, as it probably should! So the administration, in a master stroke of spin, had the crisis "rebranded". Enter: Climate Change. Sounds more like a holiday than a crisis requiring attention.

The same treatment has been given to the GFC. To call it something benign like the Global Financial Crisis takes attention away from two very important issues. The first is that it is not a crisis in the sense that this thing appeared from out of nowhere like some random act of nature. Due to the incredibly unregulated financial markets in the US, financial institutions were able to act in an incredibly cavalier fashion, essentially lying to existing regulation authorities (including the international markets) in order to appear more profitable than they actually were.

In short:

• Banks lent incredibly irresponsibly to people whom the banks knew were not in a position to pay back such house mortgages.
• The bank leaders and managers did so in order to sell more banking products.
• The reason they needed to sell products, was in order to make greater profits.
• The driving force is the greed of the few.

Bank leaders and managers lying in order to satiate greed. So it grieves me no end, to call something that has to do with the powerful few abusing their position for the sake of their own personal greed, something benign like the Global Financial Crisis. Why don't we call it what it is? Global Abuse of Power? Global Corruption Crisis? Financial Institutional Greed Crisis?

The second issue that went through to the keeper is the one of international trade. For decades, the World Bank/International Monetary Fund has been telling the governments of developing countries that if they want loans and investment, then they cannot prop up failing businesses. If a business or corporation fails in their country, they just need to let the market do it's work, which effectivley means, indigenous corporations fail and international (read corporations from places like the USA, UK, Australia and the like) move in and take up the market share.

Failing businesses and corporations in developing nations means incredible pain for workers in parts of the world that do not have the kinds of safety nets that places like the USA, the UK and Australia do.

So, the "GFC" hits, US car manufacturing companies begin to fall over and what happens, they go to their government and ask to be bailed out with tax payer funds. The American senate responds with packages.

So the USA effectivley declares to the world that there are two sets of rules, one for developing nations (who have no negotiating power and have to accept the raw deal given them) and one for developing nations (who have the power to do whatever they want).

The net result of all of the above, is that the communities and the individuals who are most vulnerable, are those in developing countries, and specifically, those from poor communities.

I have been struggling, particularly during this time of Lent, to know how I as an individual follower of Jesus, can somehow respond to this incredibly overwhelming set of unjust systems that wreak havoc on poor communities. As I have contemplated a response, one thought was to share it with others. And so I have.

Grace.

Labels: Culture, Discipleship, Faith, Justice, Theology, Trade

  Posted by Stephen @ 9:46 PM   0 comments