It is a personal endavour of every individual to improve financially. Over the past many years, financial systems have changed globally and infact has aided this basic desire of its customer ( common man / investor ) to increase his reach and provide means to facilitate any investment.
With changing times , preference for investment has taken turns from stock market to real estate to mutual funds etc…..

Talking particularly of India, many have reaped outstandig benefits through investments in stock, real estate and other financial products but at the same time many lost almost everything!!

Current economic meltdown has not only created scare due to reduce in demand, job losses but also raised a serious question on what to believe in and what not to believe in as far as any investment goes.

What Critical changes are required ?

Transparency is the biggest need of hour at every level.

Today , most masses are not able to guage the impact of a political decision that has financial implication. Masses actually are not able to relate directly with such decisions as most of them ar not capable in assessing the impact of such decisions on them.

All institutions / individuals that offer financial products , advice etc… need to be more transparent. Any policy document should be simple enough to understand for the investor and like benefits, risks should also be highlighted through examples.
In most cases, there is always something in fine print that always surfaces when things go wrong. All instutions / individuals that are involved in offering such services should be made accountable and should be rated on annual basis for the accuracy of services they provide by a separate and independant body that would act as regulator to overlook cases of default.

Awareness, not hope or scare should be focus to improve investor’s understanding so as to enable him to take right decision.

Critical barriers here would still be on how can one bring steps into action to achieve transparency and to what extent can one actually overcome “gut” feel of investor, even if right and enough information is made available in simple form.

Investment is always made with the purpose of getting the best return. Investor parks his money based on his understanding about “best return” and his capacity to invest ( which could be extended through loans from banks ). Attracting global investment would largely depend on how a country is viewed in terms of its political climate – that effects safety of funds deployed and return , stability of currency , financial benefits for investor and relative advantage in investing at a particular location from options available. Concessions MUST always be balanced with responsibilities so that profit making does not become the sole objective of investment. There MUST be transparency and political immunity for any foreign investment so that venture can be pursued professionally without fear of red tape or roll back with any political change. If investments are made in a stable atomsphere, financial variables and performance would depend largely on how best things are managed. This would automatically ensure competitivness. Upgrading of workforce skills MUST be made mandatory across the industry so that people learn to do their job BETTER.

Investor confidence can be won if there is enough transparency for investor to understand the benefits and risks of investment and if the investor is sure that his investment is governed by systems that offer a very little scope of mis-information and manipulation. Accountability of institutions and individual offering such services would create sense of security against frauds and scams and I believe that is equally important.

It’s probably a bit soon to have learned a great deal about this yet, especially the Governments.

However, based on Bernake and Geithner’s remarks of March 3, I think they are realizing that there were large regulatory gaps:
“If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can’t think of one other than AIG. There was no oversight in the financial products division. This was a hedge fund basically that was attached to a large and stable insurance company”

-Ben Bernanke, 3 March 2009

“AIG is a huge, complex, global insurance company attached to a very complicated investment bank hedge fund that was allowed to build up without any adult supervision.”

-Timothy Geithner, 3 March 2009

What I am concerned with is what, if anything, have shareholders learned from this? It has amazed me for years how overpaid senior managers loot the companies and the shareholders don’t seem to be aware of what’s going on and, worse, don’t seem to care until it’s too late.

I think shareholders need to put more attention to what is going on within their companies, take a more proactive role, and make sure that the people making the big bonuses are really earning them.

How many times does this pillaging of corporate assets have to happen before shareholders wake up and get together to safeguard their mutual interests?

1) Sustainability
2) Economy
3) Health Care
4) Education
5) Environment
6) Global Trade
7) Democratic International Relations
Balance

The first is key to any nation surviving: sustainability. This also incorporates any green energy, transportation networks, economy. You could branch off in several directions; however, in the eyes of your constituents, you are doing what you set off to do.

The Economy is the second aspect, driven by the first and correlated chain reaction amongst the rest of my list. Any one of those aspects are interrelated and ceteris paribus or Occam’s Razor to a certain extent.

The last one, Balance, is another great aspect that no one seems to remember, but never forgets at the same time. Balance, as part of any of the aforementioned strategic goals will sustain, maintain a nation, as well as the Leader, who lives a thankless job; is subject to media sabotage and paparazzi injustice.

I still would recommend reading Machiavelli’s “The Prince”. I know there are many nations who are unable to even ask for this novel due to censorship, as knowledge is power and power is numbing the masses from the truth…Who would ever have thought in this day in age, a “book” is more deadly than a nuclear attack to some nations.

I am an American who has lived in India for almost ten years. I might be a global citizen more than anything else.

You asked, “What changes do you believe are critical for your nation?”

“Change” was the one-word slogan of Obama. It reminds me of a transitive verb with no object. The consumers will be forced to think before they continue to consume, like naive animals being fattened for the slaughter. Businessmen will be forced to think and not be consumed by their greed.

India’s new upper middle class has much in common with their American counter-parts. Many single people from the call centers are buying gift items without looking at the prices–causing inflation. They are as far away from the poor India villagers as people in Pittsburg.

NDTV is helping people grow an conscience and breaking down these social walls and making people see as the American G.I.s did when they made the German civilians walk through the concentration camps at the end of WWII.

Poverty is frightening. Fear does not bring out the best in people. Poverty can seem contagious as a plague, causing the very people who can help to scurry away from the victims. Many who are rich still have stories of their older relatives’ poverty ringing in their minds.

You asked, “What critical barriers do you see that need to be overcome?”

TRUST has been broken. Once the bridge of trust has been broken, little communication and activity can take place between the two people. It’s not the barrier–it is what needs to be built.

Regaining trust is a hard thing. Think of a marriage. Once one partner has cheated on another, sometimes the relationship cannot be repaired. It takes patience and humility. It takes no longer being selfish and self-absorbed but putting oneself in the other’s shoes instead of throwing them.

Hatred is blinding and dehumanizing. When we catch ourselves ready to hate, it is time to take a step back and not let the animal in us win.

You asked, “What should your nation do to attract not only global investment but stay competitive in the global economy?”

India and America have the problem that George Bernard Shaw spoke of–divided by a common language. They both think they speak English, but they both have very different cultural values.

Communication is the biggest factor. Whatever the situation, think about communication. Companies will want to cut back on soft skill training. This will be a mistake.

” What actions should your nation take to bring back that investor confidence?”

Telling the truth is the change we need globally.

Please specify which Nation you are addressing.

Our country (USA) and the countries of the world must begin to recognize that we are a collective whole, and that what we do to another, we do to ourselves. The universe will continue to expand and unfold and there is little we can do to curtail it, therefore we must rapidly expand with it.
 If we change the way we think about and look at things, the things we think about and look at will change, I believe our citizenry knows what to do, but our voices are not heard because they are not shared. We need our citizenry to wake up, to arise from their slumber and reengage our nation and the universe with our creativity, passion, zeal for life and hopes for our children’s future.
 Give the GE business model a hard look for how we should run our local, state and nation’s gov’t.
 If it’s social, eliminate it. . . . unless it’s facilitating the transformation of a human being from one paradigm to another
 Free speech is wonderful, so we need powerful dialogue on all the mediums based on abundance and prosperity for all.
 A 2 year national draft whereby all high school graduates “no exceptions” must serve. Every department within our borders would be able to leverage the creative and mental horsepower as well as the sweat equity of our nation’s future, our youth
 Flat Tax – taxed at consumption
 A rapid departure from fossil fuel to clean energy
 Not a re-building of our infrastructure but a re-thinking and re-design
 Restoration of the food chain in every country on the planet
 There should be a book distribution at every hospital whereby every child born receives 5 years worth of reading.
If you’ve read Kahlil Gibran’s wonderful book The Prophet you’ll know what I mean when I say “Comfort has become our citizenry’s master”
Only the Best,
Les Dossey
Truth Guru

Links:
http://lesdossey.com