5
Jan
Optimism is the cure for the downturn
VIEWPOINT, article from www.bbc.co.uk/news. By Entrepreneur Sir
David Tang 'Pessimism is the most serious cause for the global
economic tsunami. There is an ocean of people who are now feeling
so depressed that not only have they become resigned to the fact
that they are in deep trouble, but they have told everybody else
that they are also in deep trouble. Pessimism has an uncanny knack
of being self-fulfilling. No wonder almost every single quoted
share in the world has gone down significantly, mostly by half, if
not much more. Even the most solid companies, such as HSBC, which
has no real exposure; or BP, which has significant oil reserves; or
a company like Dell, which has an enormous amount of cash - the
shares of these companies have traded down considerably. That is
the barometer of our general pessimism. BIG COLLAPSES The present
condition has also been a wake-up call for those who have lost
sight of understanding the businesses in which they invest. Before
now, there were far too many people out there trying to profit from
the shuffling of papers and commodities and derivatives and options
and hedging: really sophisticated instruments - but all too clever
by half. It just goes to show that having all these smart theories
and ingenious ideas is no substitute for a solid business sense
based on the fundamentals of supply and demand, with particular
reference to the efficiency of the workforce; all those basic
components that people such as Warren Buffett emphasise and are
often ridiculed for. Let this depressing climate also be a reminder
that if you grow big, you can collapse big. The higher you climb
the harder you fall. THINK SMALL In this mania for globalisation,
it might not necessarily be good to be absolutely massive. Just
look at some of the banks and car manufacturers - they are huge,
and they are in huge trouble. What we all need to do is to sit down
and calm down and go back to basics. And most important of all,
shed our sense of pessimism. It is only with a sense of optimism,
preferably accompanied by a sense of energy and laughter, that we
will be able to pick ourselves up from a broken Humpty Dumpty. In
particular, governments must immediately instigate infrastructure
projects to increase employment, and they must force banks,
particularly those that they have rescued, to lend to small
businesses. Without a general sense of gainful employment, from
which the ordinary people at large can grow optimistic, we run a
huge danger of increasing unemployment. BUT WE CANNOT BE
COMPLACENT. We must stem growing unemployment and promote maximum
employment. Jobs measure feelings more accurately than the Richter
scale measures earthquakes. Sir David Tang is the Hong Kong-born,
English-educated entrepreneur who founded the clothing chain
Shanghai Tang.'