Blog Stuck On You

Most world leaders are agreeing that some new way of managing the global financial system is needed. For online stock and internet options brokers, as well as individuals who do their own online trading and options trading that can only be a boon. With the markets in turmoil, and more and more reports of effects in the real economy, something has got to be done.

I’ve been involved in online stock trading for years. The technology just keeps getting bet-ter, and the near real time and real time reporting is amazing.

However, no matter how good the technology, it’s not going to tell you how and what to sell in today’s perplexed and volatile markets. I don’t think there are any economic models prepared to deal with all this.

Many world leaders want to have another conference, like what was done in 1944, in Bretten Woods, New Hampshire.

At that time, as World War II was ending, 44 western countries got together to try to map out a sensible and workable financial system. Out of the meeting was fashioned the basics of the world financial system we have today, including the International Monetary Fund, the International Trade Organization, and the World Bank.

All of those institutions have served pretty well over the decades, but the new and electronic glob-al economy has proven faster and more nimble — and more deadly– than the over 60 year-old organizations.

Something new is needed — and fast!

There is the feeling that the western nations are headed for a catastrophe and the emerging na-tions, such as China and India, are in very real danger of following down that same road.

Much of the current financial meltdown has to do with the unknown and unknowable “bad paper” that is floating around out there.

So far, the United States hasn’t wholeheartedly endorsed such an idea, but with situations be-coming unglued in the financial markets, most think it will only be a matter of time before the US sits down again with some of the same participants who met in that little New Hampshire town of Bretton Woods some 64 years ago.

Shortly the US presidential election will be over, and there will be a period of inaction and insecurity. That will not help the markets. There is nothing that can be done about that, unless the incumbent administration sits down with the newly elected administration and they both agree on a course of action.

So if there is a new Bretton Woods, a Bretton Woods II, it will come fairly soon or not at all.

Tags: Finance, Stocks, Investments & Retirement