We are losing precious time (1)

It is time to concentrate on something else than terrorism, war, boycotting, and insulting other countries.

As recently mentioned by Larry Goldstein, president of Petroleum Industry Research Foundation: “ Our relative importance in the global markets is diminishing. An American economic slowdown, won’t have a visible impact on high oil demand and it won’t have a visible impact on high oil prices.”

The American companies and the United States risk to be ignored and/or eliminated as business partners in the future economy of the Real World. In the last few months, we have noticed the following:

* several Europeans countries are planning to withdraw, and/or, diminish their financial contributions to World Bank
* many European groups that staged high-profile share listings on Wall Street in the 1990s are now slipping out the back door, using the cost and restrictions as an excuse.
* the sharp decline of our dollar (more than 65% in the last five years) creates new problems for many international companies and financial institutions.

* there is a growing possibility that the US dollar will not, anymore, remain the basic currency for the international community.
* another report warned that China, India and other developing economies needed to protect themselves against the possibility of a sharp slowdown in the United States.

OPEC is thinking to use the Euro dollar. European Community has already started to compare the Euro with a basket of currencies, as well as China. International companies are looking at a different option than to show their earnings in US dollars.

One of the main reasons to leave New York Stock Exchange, is to escape scrutiny by SEC, especially since 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act). Another reason concerns the accumulation of threats by the White House and narrow-minded Congress, in their attempts to freeze assets of companies dealing in Iran.

This short-sighted and childish approach will simply act as a boomerang. Cuba, Vietnam, Palestine are only a few examples that boycotting and threats are just playing against our own future interest.

The financial accounting scandals at Enron, Worldcom, etc. did not contribute to our international reputation and credibility. Non-competent regulators were too late for establishing a good corporate governance. Still, we have an irresponsible Senate and Congress keeping in place Executives at Fannie Mae who mismanaged $11 billion.

This is not the right way to convince the international community. If we are serious, and want to show the world that we mean business, one way to regain the trust will be to fire the existing Executive Team at Fannie Mae, as a first example.

How can we trust Executives involved in conflict of interest, who cheat their shareholders. and who have no qualms in abusing the good faith of citizens.

It is discouraging to see that certain politicians dare to expand the portfolio of Fannie Mae, after such a fiasco in the last few years. Not surprising that we lost our credibility and trust with the real world. No ethics, no moral, no competence. And we keep them in place.

The European Commission is closely following the developments in our financial markets, especially in the housing sector. They are expecting concrete and positive results.

Surprising that no one is listening to (or understanding) the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, who recently said that relaxing the portfolio restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie-Mac could prove “ill-advised”.

Are they all that stupid in the Senate and Congress, that they can not even remember the chaos of subprime mortgages? The best way for Fannie Mae to regain trust, will be to get rid of the present regime But with a spineless Congress, we can not expect too much.

Let’s show the world that we are serious. Let’s start with a few examples. More than time to clean our House, and fire those who have no ethics, no moral, no competence, if we want to restore our credibility and prestige.

(part 2, on Monday)

The Facilitator