subject: Gravity Freeze [print this page] I picked up my mail last week and saw this cover - yet another "Woe is Me" media proclaimation that drives me nuts.
This kind of media naysaying causes what I call a Gravity Freeze. That's what happens when a powerful group of influencers promote Gravity thinking, consequently Freezing everyone that hears their message in their current beliefs - like deer in the headlights, waiting to be run over. In this case, the media is essentially contributing heavily to the belief that there's little hope for any forward progress in terms of our economy. Thanks to the continued negative press and coverage - a lot of people are Frozen in Gravity, hopeless as to a recovery of any kind.
I wanted to share a few facts about our current economic condition. They paint a different picture than the above headline. I'm not saying we have a recovery. What I am saying is that we have the ability to recover - if we would shift out of the negative 'woe is me' and into a new, forward focused way of thinking and believing.
Why do I believe we have the means to recover? Check out the following facts:
As of April 2010, US corporations were sitting on $1.6 trillion in cash reserves, a record amount. Even looking at the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index of blue chips -- and stripping out the large cash reserves required by regulators to balance against risk -- the cash on hand number is still huge: $1.1 trillion. To put that in perspective, as a percentage of companies' total market capitalization, that $1.1 trillion held as cash is more than double the ratio seen before the crisis.*
Imagine what half of that stockpile could accomplish toward fueling a recovery - if corporations would choose to focus forward toward growth, instead of being in Graviyt Freeze focused on the pas economic struggles and fear.
The same goes for private investors. According to a report from Scorpio Partnership, the world's high-net-worth investors (with $1 million or more) have an extra $10 trillion that they are hoarding instead of sharing with money managers for investment. These investors do have $16.5 trillion invested with private banks and wealth-management firms - which is up from $14.5 trillion at the end of 2008. That 'up' is largely the result of market gains. But Scorpio, a London consulting firm, says wealthy investors actually have more than $26 trillion that they could be giving the banks and wealth-management firms to manage. "This implies there is approximately $10 trillion of high-net-worth assets that could be advised by banks," the firm says. "Capturing these assets is the real answer for industry recovery."**
Now think about the fuel that extra $10 Trillion in assets could bring tio economic growth. Even half of that $10 Trillion would make a huge shift in our economy. Half of the private wealth and half of the corporate stockpiles would change the face of our economy from slow and painful to energized and healthy.
Now let's look at the shift that's happened in the past years with regard to the distribution of wealth. In the 1970's, the top one percent of earners in the US accounted for 9% of total earnings. Today, that same one percent takes in nearly 24% of total earnings. Read that again everyone. We've shifted so much wealth to the wealthy, that we've dramatically reduced the earnings of middle and lower class workers.
Imagine the impacts if the majority of the wealthy followed the lead of individuals like Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett? What if they stepped up to their $600 Billion Challenge to donate 50% of their wealth to charity during, or after, their lifetime? Think what changes that would make in our entire economic system as those less fortunate were empowered thanks to the wealth of that top one percent?
We have the means to recover - a recovery for all of the US. The challenge rests with those who hold the power - the cash - to stimulate that recovery. Until those in control of the fuel step up and change their own status quo thinking and actions - we may just be stuck in the Gravity Freeze.
The problem with that is that those same folks and businesses don't feel the Freeze - they sit back and gnash their teeth about the potential of losing their stockpiles of cash- while others lose their homes, their jobs, their livelihoods and - their lives.
So how do we get those cash hoarders out of their Gravity? I don't have a good answer for that one. I wish I did. It's unfathomable to me that so few could hold the balance of our economy in their tight fists - watching as those less fortunate suffer because of their fear.
What do you think? How do we break through the Freeze and start the fuel pumping? Any ideas?
