mit profs on the financial crisis

five mit professors of economics and business had a panel discussion recently concerning the financial crisis. the summary is quite good if you only have a minute. the web case (requires windoze media player) is linked to from the summary. the web cast has many more interesting observations though is tricky to follow unless you’re familiar with the terminology already.

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not a good time to be a cowboy

joi ito published these sets from sequoia capital on startup companies and the economic downturn. i was wondering what the venture world thought the next couple years would be like. bottom line: tighten belts, get cash positive, don’t expect followup rounds of funding. looks like a tough time to be starting a business - at least a tough time to be starting one with venture money - or keeping one going. but that might mean it’s a great time to be starting one that is on the cheap and doesn’t require large capitalization until things recover.

banking interdependence

wow. nothing is showing off the growing interdependence of the world better than the current financial crisis and the resulting, coordinated government interventions. will this be heralded as the first glimmer of a single, world government? never before have the major central banks operated in unison.

and i also wonder if this means warfare is now obsolete between major countries. all the markets are in joint free fall: hong kong yesterday had a 10% drop in value. russia lost 14% in two days and then suspended trading for the rest of the week. we’re all so clearly tied together now. would any country stomach having all their savings evaporate over a major war? can we just agree that war is not an option anymore?

this also demonstrates the true, modern self-defense of american soil. no one would dare attack the US for fear of losing all their retirement savings.