Trying make sense of what is happening around the world can be a bit challenging and stressful and you really don’t know where to turn for answers. On top of that trying to make sense of the current economic situation and what the consequences are for us is even more stressful. Where previously there was hardly any debate on the economy and the shadow banking system now there is no dearth of commentary and analysis of what went wrong and what needs to done moving forward to rescue the economy. Every newspaper, TV station,  magazine, commentator, economist, talk show host and citizen journalist (myself included) have a point of view on the current economic situation. But, the sad truth is none of us know the answer.  In spite of the information overload I find that we are like seven blind people trying to describe an elephant, i.e. the economy. Everybody is describing their bit, but nobody is able to describe the whole picture. Where is the wise one? Where is the all-knowing guru?

Instead, what we have today is is a lot of fear and uncertainty. I am reminded of Charles Dickens A Tale Of Two Cities and that famous opening line from the book:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Dickens’ book is about the French Revolution of the 18th century that gave birth to a period known as enlightenment and to those great ideas of liberty and freedom. It is uncanny how some of those words can be used to describe the current 21st century situation. It is the best of times when you acknowledge that the human race is probably living in one of the best periods in history. Think of the innovation and technology advancements that took place with the invention of the telephone and electricity to the discovery of human genome and advances made in medial sciences and we have made huge strides within a short span of 1oo years.  It is the worst of times when you look at the various wars waged around the world  that appear to be  based on our primordial instincts. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. We are truly lucky in some sense to be living during these interesting times, but I suspect that many of us don’t appreciate that fact and nor do we stop to think about it since we are all so caught up in this whole idea of instant gratification.

I don’t know about you but it is at times like these that works of Charles Dickens or that quotation from Franklin Delano Roosevelt that we have nothing to fear but fear itself makes total sense to me.  What we need in times of crisis (crises) is hope and personal courage. In times of despair the only thing that keeps you going is hope. Maybe the current crisis of confidence in many people’s mind in the US stems from a lack of hope and optimism. It is not for nothing that researchers and analysts use that phrase “market sentiment” to describe the emotional or psychological mood of a market. The question is how do we work on increasing that infectious feeling or sentiment known as hope and optimism? We all have it within us and need to re-discover it. We are all bound together in this.

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