| | |  Editorials | Opinions | November 2009 
The Economic Crisis; Credibility Crisis: Which Crisis Next?
 Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari - PVNN
November 01, 2009
 |  | So, what is the next crisis? Everything seems to show us the path: 'governability crisis.' |  | | |
Nobody seems to ask the question and certainly nobody takes the risk of guessing. And yet it seems so obvious.
After the economic crisis, there was a "credibility" or "trust" crisis. After the crash, populations became very cautious towards the solutions suggested by governments or suggestions provided by all sorts of "experts". People simply did not believe anybody. It is hard to believe in somebody when you do not have anything to eat and you've lost everything. On top of that you add to the problems, frauds like Madoff or Stanford and others. The government seems to take its time to recover their assets and pay back to people.
Legal unblocking of assets in these frauds seems to be extremely difficult. Where are the rules and regulations to operate in the country? For the Madoff or Stanford's cases: Bloomberg indicated that if you can get 10 cents to any dollar invested you would be lucky. Don't ask for government help, you won't get it right away. You might pass away while waiting.
To most people, the economic crisis could have been avoided if most banking institutions were doing their jobs correctly: If the rules and regulations were clear and would not allow for obvious mistakes: Lending money correctly. So somebody did a bad job and then the government gives them money to get out of the problem. And now, the assets of those bankrupted banks have quadrupled in price and the money does not get back to the government and people are still losing their homes and their jobs and starving. The government does not seem to oblige those who did their job poorly to pay back their debts. Also, the very same government needs to start a health care system and does not get anywhere. That money could be a start but nobody in the government asks for it. A lot of talking but people is still in trouble and there are no results. So we seem to pay a lot of bureaucrats to do nothing.
What is worse is that most governments around the world seem to be in the very same track and the average citizens no longer trust their governments. Politicians seem to think that their country is "theirs" and they do whatever they want with it. The population is in trouble but it is not the bureaucrats' problem, it is the populations' problem, not theirs. Communication between politicians and the people that voted for them, seem to be inexistent now. People want results and bureaucrats don't want to be bothered with people who voted for them.
So, what is the next crisis? Everything seems to show us the path: "governability crisis". The election of Mr. B. Obama was seen by many as a hope. But the results are not there and people are losing patience. Yes, the US is in huge problems: economical, social, health and many others. But don't ask people who are at the edge of starvation to be patient. They want results now. They have been paying their taxes for years. They want results. Other countries in Latin America and Africa seem to be trapped in the typical spiral: dictatorship after dictatorship: Of course, those are dictatorships to the eyes of many but not to the concerned countries: those "governments" have been "freely" elected. As an Argentinean joke says:"When shall we get together? Between two devaluations? Or between two coups d'état?" So, in some countries people do not want to wait: the US and most of Western Europe. In others, they are aware of electoral frauds and can do nothing. So morale's of the people are close to zero. No government can govern under those circumstances.
All this seems to indicate that sooner or later people will simply not bother to even go and vote for anybody or for anything or even a referendum. Recover that trust is going to be difficult. The only country that seems to have taken a stand for their people is France. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy has been trying to keep a dialogue with the population. In an interview last week, he indicated that those that made an economic mess should pay for it. If the banks did it, if the insurance companies did it, well they should pay for it. Even the European Union seems shocked with this proposal and few follow this initiative. Nobody offers an alternative. And for the rest of us: Will you bother for the next elections? Or will you simply realize that most of the population has "no say". The problem will be when fed up people stop paying taxes.
Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari is a former electoral officer of the United Nations Organization. Contact him at gui.voting(at)gmail.com |
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