When I seek extra views beyond the most convenient NYTimes arriving in my email daily, I usually surf The Guardian (UK newspaper) online. Old tradition there: in the earliest years of our marriage, Tom Bold and I actually subscribed to the print version, along with the Christian Science Monitor. (No, neither of us exhibits that religion, and neither does the newspaper.)
For the current news story—the U.S. financial crisis—I surfed to another source: The Telegraph (UK). If The Guardian is liberal-centre (as the Brits would spell it), then The Telegraph is the mirror, conservative-centre. The centrist position is the modern trend but the paper's roots are in conservatism.
To share here, I settled on a commentary by Edmund Conway, the economics editor. The title is compelling, Financial Crisis: The next decade could be our very own Great Depression. Sometimes, it's easier to take in our own news with the perspective of global partners who face the same challenges. Conway self-identifies as a free-market guy, so that makes his commentary all the more interesting.
I am following two aspects of our U.S. crisis:
1) The American public predicts that a bail-out will continue (polls say 2/3 of Americans) but there's a backlash to the bail-out by a vocal minority complaining to members of Congress. The majority who expect and support a bail-out are also complaining, of course, and anyone up for re-election must deal with that.
2) Americans have a hard time imagining the future economic landscape, with or without a bail-out. We lack experience (limited to some 1980s pain), we recall the Great Depression as a remote family story, and we tend to imagine only our own immediate situation.
© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.
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