It may seem like the financial markets are these huge, faceless machines that do whatever it is they do and crush anything or anyone in their way.
To some extent, that is true.
However, when you scrape away all the camouflage of corporate spin, you find people – mostly men – turning the gears at the top posts.
These humans are susceptible to the same emotions, concerns and fears that we all endure.
This explains, in some small measure, why so many smart people led their companies right off the edge of the financial cliff and why they allowed their companies to take risks most of them would caution their next door neighbor against doing.
It is on one hand comforting and concerning that fallible people have their hands on the controls of financial machines that could bring down our economy (and the global economy) should they fail.
Failures in the early part of the 2008-09 financial crisis frightened otherwise intelligent people into making rash decisions.
We all would like to think steadier hands are at the controls, but clearly that wasn’t so.
President Obama has asked Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to serve another term in the signal most powerful position in the financial markets.
Bernanke has a mixed record in handling the financial crisis, but it is more right than wrong.
Here’s hoping he has the wisdom to continue steering the economy out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
