Last night, I went to bed assuming that I was confused about the US House of Representatives voting ‘no’ to the rescue package. However, with the benefit of sleep it became clear that my confusion was actually disbelief.
What I find the most disconcerting is the will of the American people to let Wall Street suffer – especially the rich bankers who are being blamed for this. There appears to be no recognition that what happens to Wall Street may have a direct impact on Main Street. An article in Money Marketing highlights how pain in Wall Street will be felt by regular Americans. Their pensions and investments will be falling in value, they will get less interest in their accounts as the Fed cuts interest rates, they will find it mush harder to access mainstream financial services and will suffer from the job insecurity due as their employers also struggle to access financial products.
This is a classic case of cutting your nose off to spite your face. It is easy to blame the banking industry for this, but this is a time for resolution rather than blame management.
