Are You In A Muddle?

A friend of mine commented recently that the economy was in a muddle. Not growing at any substantial rate, not sliding backwards dramatically, just muddling along. His prediction for the near term? More muddle. How did we get here? More importantly, how do we get out of it? How do we adjust our job performances and our businesses to survive and thrive in this muddle?

There is a lot of blame being thrown around. Politically, those on the left continue to blame George Bush; those on the right blame Obama and the Democratic congress. Educators whose budgets have been reduced blame the local politicians who have made those decisions. In business, those out of work blame the companies with whom they used to be employed. Those who are underemployed, or whose incomes have been dramatically and negatively impacted, blame the market place and their bosses. As for me, I blame us.

Now, before I make the case that you and I are the problem, let me share a recent experience. Earlier this month, I attended a leadership conference in which one of the speakers was Dr. Peter Zhoo Xiao, Chinese PhD economist, who was sent to the US in 2002 to study the free market system and make some recommendations to the Chinese government.

Operating from purely an economic perspective, Dr. Xiao came to the conclusion that the reason the free market system works so well in the US is because it is under-girded and supported by Christian values. Other countries who have not had the benefit of a Christian foundation and a Christian culture have not fared nearly as well. Think Russia and the Near East countries, for example.

America continues to be a place of great admiration around the world, and great attraction for people globally, because of its commitment to Christian values, according to Dr. Xiao. File that away for a minute. Back to the cause of the muddle. The direct cause of the economic collapse was hundreds of thousands of people trying to live beyond their means. They bought houses they couldnt afford, with loans that were, at best, ill-advised and at worst, fraudulent.

Thousands of loan officers and financial service professionals took the path of least resistance as well, packaging those very shaky loans into packages and then selling them for the commissions they generated. They, too, compromised their values for the sake of easy money. Politicians, in the quest for more voters, looked the other way. The quest for power overwhelmed their common sense and they voted for laws that encouraged the excess.