America now mulls to sell, not buy
Friday, 25 September 2009
Maswood Alam Khan
FOR the last few decades Americans have established their reputation as buyers, not sellers. And factory owners the world over have since long mobilized their men and geared their machines to regulate volumes of factory production keeping always in mind the taste and shopping behaviour of American consumers.
But, golden days of salesmen in a developed country like China or in a developing country like Bangladesh seem to be over with American buyers nowadays tremendously dithering over what and how much to buy in the wake of the deepest global financial crisis in decades.
Like a burned forest devastated by a recent wildfire, the economic landscape of the world dotted with dead or half-dead financial institutions---like a parched land dotted with charred trees with a ghastly look---foreboded an ominous future for the last two years.
After a wildfire is over, those dependent on forest for their living wait eagerly to see the sky darkening with thick clouds in the expectation of an immediate rainfall.
If there were a downpour not long after a wildfire there is a slight chance that green shoots would soon be seen sprouting from those charred trees.
Thanks to pouring of trillions of dollars on the burnt world of finance new green leaves are of late seen sprouting from those half-dead financial trees that were not completely burnt to ground by the recession.
The U.S. trade deficit shot up in last July to the highest level in six months, signalling a pickup in their economy, as a surge in shipments of foreign oil and autos pushed imports up by a record amount.
In July, U.S. imports rose 4.7 per cent, while exports edged up a smaller 2.2 per cent. Both gains provide evidence that the most severe recession since World War II is beginning to lose its grip on the world economy. Observers are earnestly hoping a rebound in global economies.
Nevertheless, with new offshoots sprouting from money plants, the economic world however will never be as it was. Mounting unemployment problem will not disappear in the coming years though the world economy will somehow regain a part of its lost strength.
Bankers will never get bonuses as fat as they used to receive in their bygone years.
Shoppers will be more circumvent while choosing what and how much to buy. Chic shops of designer goods will be crowded more by window-shoppers than by the real consumers. Rich and poor countries alike will be more frequently looking at the foot of their balance sheets before allowing their traders to import goods in large quantities.
Leaders of G20, the Group of 20 (G20) rich countries accounting for about 85 per cent of the world economy, are now meeting, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, for a two-day summit to deliberate what and how to do to stop a recurrence of the financial crisis in future. U.S. President Barack Obama, an outstanding one of the 20 leaders, is determined to push world leaders for a reshaping of the global economy where all people of the world---not Americans alone---have to indulge in shopping sprees.
"We can't go back to the era where the Chinese or the Germans or other countries just are selling everything to us" Obama said in a recent interview with CNN television.
However, Americans were, are, and will always remain big spenders. Americans, unlike us, don't carry big moneybags stashed with cash and coins; they carry small pouches stuffed with credit cards. Shops in America don't mind to furnish a house with carpets on one-year credit with no interest tagged.
American shoppers, unlike us, can't think or dream of buying a car, a washing machine, or an apartment completely loan-free. Americans don't bother what the bankers will do to their children after they are dead with their debts unadjusted, while we, the people of China or Pakistan or Bangladesh, repay all our worldly loans and debts before we breathe our last. Metaphorically speaking, Americans live for today and almost the rest of the whole world live for tomorrow.
For years before the financial crisis erupted in 2007, a danger loomed large over the economic horizon of the world when huge trade surpluses and currency reserves were being built up by exporters like China and other Asian economies, while big deficits were being incurred by importers like the United States and other European economies. Such an imbalance in trades between exporters and importers was bound to spark off a catastrophe and the inevitable cataclysm in the financial world did hit the whole world.
Thank God we have been narrowly saved thanks to giant fire fighters like U.S.A. and European Union (EU) which rose to the challenge to plunk down tons of money as stimulus packages to keep the sinking financial and industrial institutions from dying.
Scared nations must now be thriving to find ways and means on how to vaccinate their economies to protect themselves from a future financial meltdown.
Therefore, leaders of G20 in their summit in Pittsburgh will sit to reframe the global economy. They will undoubtedly urge China to prod their people to buy more un-Chinese goods imported from the West to make sure there is a more balanced economy in future. Calls for a new equilibrium will be more pronounced than ever before.
Whatever is concluded in the G20 summit and however strongly the Chinese people are urged to spend more on American consumer products, high unemployment will remain as it is for a couple of years more and American buyers will continue shying away from the chic shops displaying designer goods.
That is a bad news for China, which is the principal manufacturer and supplier of all costly goods Americans and Europeans buy and that on the other hand is undoubtedly a good news for countries like Bangladesh, which produce and supply cheaper goods displayed in popular malls and flea markets where thrifty Americans and poor shoppers in the Occident crowd to buy their consumables to save a little bit of money.
The half-dead financial trees wherefrom new green offshoots are now sprouting will take many more years to develop their branches where flowers will bloom, fruits will hang and people will climb on to pluck harvests.
Meanwhile, leaders of G20 must endeavour to make sure another wildfire---the possibility of which cannot be ruled out with boom-bust behaviour of the Wall Street---does not take place in near future when the half-dead financial trees are still fighting to cheat their deaths.
The writer, a banker, can be reached at e-mail: maswood@hotmail.com
FOR the last few decades Americans have established their reputation as buyers, not sellers. And factory owners the world over have since long mobilized their men and geared their machines to regulate volumes of factory production keeping always in mind the taste and shopping behaviour of American consumers.
But, golden days of salesmen in a developed country like China or in a developing country like Bangladesh seem to be over with American buyers nowadays tremendously dithering over what and how much to buy in the wake of the deepest global financial crisis in decades.
Like a burned forest devastated by a recent wildfire, the economic landscape of the world dotted with dead or half-dead financial institutions---like a parched land dotted with charred trees with a ghastly look---foreboded an ominous future for the last two years.
After a wildfire is over, those dependent on forest for their living wait eagerly to see the sky darkening with thick clouds in the expectation of an immediate rainfall.
If there were a downpour not long after a wildfire there is a slight chance that green shoots would soon be seen sprouting from those charred trees.
Thanks to pouring of trillions of dollars on the burnt world of finance new green leaves are of late seen sprouting from those half-dead financial trees that were not completely burnt to ground by the recession.
The U.S. trade deficit shot up in last July to the highest level in six months, signalling a pickup in their economy, as a surge in shipments of foreign oil and autos pushed imports up by a record amount.
In July, U.S. imports rose 4.7 per cent, while exports edged up a smaller 2.2 per cent. Both gains provide evidence that the most severe recession since World War II is beginning to lose its grip on the world economy. Observers are earnestly hoping a rebound in global economies.
Nevertheless, with new offshoots sprouting from money plants, the economic world however will never be as it was. Mounting unemployment problem will not disappear in the coming years though the world economy will somehow regain a part of its lost strength.
Bankers will never get bonuses as fat as they used to receive in their bygone years.
Shoppers will be more circumvent while choosing what and how much to buy. Chic shops of designer goods will be crowded more by window-shoppers than by the real consumers. Rich and poor countries alike will be more frequently looking at the foot of their balance sheets before allowing their traders to import goods in large quantities.
Leaders of G20, the Group of 20 (G20) rich countries accounting for about 85 per cent of the world economy, are now meeting, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, for a two-day summit to deliberate what and how to do to stop a recurrence of the financial crisis in future. U.S. President Barack Obama, an outstanding one of the 20 leaders, is determined to push world leaders for a reshaping of the global economy where all people of the world---not Americans alone---have to indulge in shopping sprees.
"We can't go back to the era where the Chinese or the Germans or other countries just are selling everything to us" Obama said in a recent interview with CNN television.
However, Americans were, are, and will always remain big spenders. Americans, unlike us, don't carry big moneybags stashed with cash and coins; they carry small pouches stuffed with credit cards. Shops in America don't mind to furnish a house with carpets on one-year credit with no interest tagged.
American shoppers, unlike us, can't think or dream of buying a car, a washing machine, or an apartment completely loan-free. Americans don't bother what the bankers will do to their children after they are dead with their debts unadjusted, while we, the people of China or Pakistan or Bangladesh, repay all our worldly loans and debts before we breathe our last. Metaphorically speaking, Americans live for today and almost the rest of the whole world live for tomorrow.
For years before the financial crisis erupted in 2007, a danger loomed large over the economic horizon of the world when huge trade surpluses and currency reserves were being built up by exporters like China and other Asian economies, while big deficits were being incurred by importers like the United States and other European economies. Such an imbalance in trades between exporters and importers was bound to spark off a catastrophe and the inevitable cataclysm in the financial world did hit the whole world.
Thank God we have been narrowly saved thanks to giant fire fighters like U.S.A. and European Union (EU) which rose to the challenge to plunk down tons of money as stimulus packages to keep the sinking financial and industrial institutions from dying.
Scared nations must now be thriving to find ways and means on how to vaccinate their economies to protect themselves from a future financial meltdown.
Therefore, leaders of G20 in their summit in Pittsburgh will sit to reframe the global economy. They will undoubtedly urge China to prod their people to buy more un-Chinese goods imported from the West to make sure there is a more balanced economy in future. Calls for a new equilibrium will be more pronounced than ever before.
Whatever is concluded in the G20 summit and however strongly the Chinese people are urged to spend more on American consumer products, high unemployment will remain as it is for a couple of years more and American buyers will continue shying away from the chic shops displaying designer goods.
That is a bad news for China, which is the principal manufacturer and supplier of all costly goods Americans and Europeans buy and that on the other hand is undoubtedly a good news for countries like Bangladesh, which produce and supply cheaper goods displayed in popular malls and flea markets where thrifty Americans and poor shoppers in the Occident crowd to buy their consumables to save a little bit of money.
The half-dead financial trees wherefrom new green offshoots are now sprouting will take many more years to develop their branches where flowers will bloom, fruits will hang and people will climb on to pluck harvests.
Meanwhile, leaders of G20 must endeavour to make sure another wildfire---the possibility of which cannot be ruled out with boom-bust behaviour of the Wall Street---does not take place in near future when the half-dead financial trees are still fighting to cheat their deaths.
The writer, a banker, can be reached at e-mail: maswood@hotmail.com