Day 4 Reflection

Barry Lawrence

5-7-10

Day 4 Reflection

Jason Matthews, Redlands alumni class of 1992 and Director of Congressional Relations for the United States Chamber of Commerce spoke with us today on his life and the current global economic crisis. Jason is a prime example of how you can rise to enormous heights in a short time when you have the drive and determination. Even though he took a series of seemingly unconventional steps, such as working for a senator from a state he had never visited, he was able to get where he wanted because he knew how to put in the time and he knew how to say yes.

Regarding the current global economic crisis, Jason spoke on how the Greeks managed to jam themselves up against a rock and a hard place by acting in a fashion all to similar to our own, with regards to defecate spending. The global problem begins to surface when one realizes the level of entanglement the Greece has with the other euro-zone countries with the bond of a common currency. In other words, there is nothing the Greeks can do, nor anything any international mechanism can do to provide aid and assistance that wouldn’t dramatically affect the other members of the European Union (except Great Britain) because of the common use of the Euro. But when every country in the euro-zone has the same currency but different policies controlling the use and treatment of their capitol, problems are sure to ensue.

There does seem to be a logical way to ensure a crisis of this nature is not present in the future, with basic steps including: cut spending/spend more wisely, save more, borrow less, increase efficiency, etc. This, however, is a very unpopular thing to do politically. No matter what, when policy makers have term limits and a genuine interest in being reelected, there is going to be massive opposition if one was to bring up the need to dramatically decrease the standards of living, at least for a short while, in the “greatest country of all time”.