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Peak Performance Resources for Leaders by Leaders

Tag: Financial Crisis

Financial Crisis and the Speed of the Zone

For many people, the financial crisis has caused a paralyzing amount of fear. A question on many people’s minds is how to cope with this gripping emotional state at a time when action is necessary. Perhaps this is the most relevant conversation as our emotional state is what determines the speed at which we are able to take action.   Also, it is our emotional state that determines the accuracy of our perception and the mind’s ability to solve complex problems.  At this very moment, the pace of communication and information is accelerating at incomprehensible multiples.

Financial Crisis: Expansion

With the world embroiled in a global recession for the first time since the 1940’s, a lot of what we had accepted as “the way things are” has been turned upside down. Sure, there have been recessions in most regions, however it has been over 60 years since we had a global recession.

One thing a lot of people had taken for granted was that we could keep on expanding forever. This caused a bubble from over expansion when prices lost touch with fundamentals and in the end, turned out to be unsustainable.

Greed drove markets to higher and higher levels, and now that things have crashed back to earth, fear has driven (and continues to drive) markets lower and lower to such a level that we have, once again, lost touch with the fundamentals.

As you can see, we have swung between these two extremes that are driven by emotions at opposite ends of the spectrum.

IOUSA

April 26, 2017 > Update > Wow, watching this video again eight years later is an eye-opener. The US Federal debt has climbed to almost $20 Trillion. Clearly, the core issue of too high spending and too low income has not been solved.

Government finances operate on the same principles as business and personal finances, with the exception that we don’t work for the stockholders, and don’t serve the interests of all citizens. It is possible to predict the future by looking to the past. get ready for another crash. Check out the US Debt Clock > here.

March 17, 2009 > This video is very well done. I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. The graphics are awesome and the content is very well presented. The full version is available (highly recommended) on DVD from PBS.

Financial Crisis: What to Say to Your Loved Ones

Many people have their self-worth hardwired to their net-worth. I referred to this phenomenon in Towers of Glass, Feet of Clay.  Perhaps this is the single biggest reason it is a good idea to build a glass tower around yourself in the first place. So, what happens when the waves of impact touch your reality and this tower is about to blow apart from the tension, shattering everything within its shadow?

Eroding High Standards

Boom. Crash. Catastrophic failure and collapse.

History is littered with corporate failures that involve massive loss of jobs, investor, supplier, and client financial losses. Empires flourish for a while, then go into decline. Some last longer than others.

The larger the failure, the more complex and difficult it can be to trace back to the singular cause. Complexity can cover up the real issues. However, a thorough investigation by people who know what to look for can often reveal lapses in standards, honesty, and ethics long before the terminal collapse.

These lapses often (but not always) begin at the top – with the leadership, and then filter down throughout the organization.

Towers of Glass, Feet of Clay

royal_bank_building-smallI have been reflecting further about the “financial crisis,” and recalling a book I read in 1982 called Towers of Gold: Feet of Clay – the Canadian Banks, by Walter Stewart.

In a conversation about this with my colleagues I happened to say towers of glass, and perhaps 27 years later, Glass is more descriptive. In 1982, I was working in the oil and gas industry in Canada and this book was written about the Banking Industry, the mortgage crisis and the oil prices. These themes are again relevant in 2009.

Waves of Impact

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Nearly everyone is feeling the financial crisis, not all at once, but rather in waves.  These waves or fluctuations go in and out like the ocean. Each one brings more insight, more truth, more change, and with each contact, ever greater connections that impact our reality. The illusions and ideas that we took for granted are eroding.

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