DAV Blog

What might residents of non-US countries, particularly those with recent experience of financial crisis and state regulation, advise Americans to expect?

According to the New York Times, Swedish citizens with experience of a 1992 crisis might offer a few words of wisdom. “Sweden did not just bail out its financial institutions by having the government take over bad debts. It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks.” The result: the state profited from the turnaround of once-failing banks, leaving taxpayers themselves with a sizeable share of the profits.

At PostGlobal, conservative columnist Kin-ming Liu draws a parallel with Hong Kong’s $15 billion state intervention in 1998 in the local stock markets. The resulting success “has now provided a strong case for intervention” in a finance community considered to be even less regulated than Wall Street.

But is it realistic to compare the experience of small polities like Sweden and Hong Kong with Wall Street’s proposed $700 billion lifeline? Iranian investment director Ali Ettefagh speculates that the US of 2008, deeply in debt to developing nations like China and Saudi Arabia, could face a more ominous bailout scenario. “The trillion dollar sticker price might well be the opening flutter in a poker game – where the deck is rigidly stacked against the ordinary citizen as the U.S. dollar will massively devalue.”

Do US citizens stand to lose their economic power in a post-bailout global order? Or will a soft landing, like in Sweden and Hong Kong in the 1990s, be the more likely result? Tell us what you think! Join in the community of voices at Dear American Voter.

If we were in New York yesterday as a fly on the wall at the UN General Assembly meeting, we might declare yes.

The financial crisis “has moved like a tsunami around the globe,” claimed Filipino President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, “wiping away gains, erasing progress not just here in Manhattan Island, but also in the many islands of the Philippines.” She pointed to “high prices of food, fuel, and rice” as proof of a looming global collapse.

Other leaders like Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner struck a similar note of pessimism, declaring Wall Street a “casino economy” and warned that “money alone does not produce more money.” France’s Nicolas Sarkozy zeroed in on lenders, envisioning a system in which “credit agencies are controlled and punished when necessary, where transparency…replaces opaqueness.”

Our Global Pulse series this week portrays similar international voices of concern:

(Embed this week’s Global Pulse video on “Bailout”)

And at Dear American Voter, we encounter conflicting views on the ongoing crisis:

(Link to DAV “Global Economy” Videos page, but do not embed)

Could Wall Street’s woes in fact usher in a new era of global interdependence? The Gulf Daily News reports for instance that several Japanese firms could see their influence grow in a less Wall Street-centric (post-Wall Street anyone?) world. Insiders buzz that troubled firms like Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs will have little choice but to assume a more global portfolio – and power structure.

Does Wall Street collapse mean global collapse? Tell us what you think! Make your voice heard through Dear American Voter (link to DAV submissions page).

This week, all eyes are on Wall Street and the meltdown of venerable American finance houses AIG and Lehman Brothers. The political world may be abuzz with what exactly John McCain meant when he declared Monday, “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,” but here at DAV, we take up the larger question of government’s role in the economy.

International voices weighing in on this week’s Wall Street crisis include the Strong Conservative from Ontario, Canada, who strikes a Gordon Gecko note in claiming that “it is government and ineffective regulation that is truly the culprit in this financial dilemma.” The UK-based Kanishk Tharoor, writing at openUSA, sees an opening for the presidential campaign to return to substance and issues, which he claims favor the Democrats.

Should more regulation be the rule of the day?

Take a closer look at what our DAV participants have been saying about the American economy.

According to Brent Phillips, a delegate from Orange County, California interviewed at the Republican National Convention, our current economic woes have an outdated tax system to blame. He favors a “flatter” tax, in which all Americans pay taxes at a similar rate:

Tess, a student from San Francisco, counters that jobs creation should be the economic order of the day:

And earlier this year, a Kenyan citizen asked voters to consider the American economy as part of a global economy in which foreign aid plays a critical role:

Will the global economy suffer as the US economy heads south? Tell us what you think! Check out the ways in which you can participate.

Should Americans have universal health care?

Is America’s global influence on the decline?

Do you want your point of view heard?

Dear American Voter invites you to be a part of a global dialogue featuring responses from around the world to the question, “What should Americans think about as they cast their ballot? ”

With the upcoming presidential elections diverse American opinions and global voices need to be heard. Tell us what you think! Send us your video, photos and text responses or just jump in on the conversation.

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