Love in the Time of the Global Meltdown

Love.

When it starts with something big, it trickles – just like the financial fiasco in the US, now hitting the far smaller countries in Europe. The key is you have to be resilient if you are small for the stakes are high: it can consume your whole being. Fears and doubts can cause your whole economy to collapse. The stocks; your investments can drop significantly, as values are always the variable.

In this age when the world is seen from the left eye which is the political and the right eye which is the economy, it is impossible to claim that you have no hand over the things that happen in your life; let alone the investments your heart gets to choose.

Love is a disease; a  m e l t d o w n  that is the consequence of a series of poorly-made decisions and rash actions, driven by a fatal mix of attraction and affection. A bailout seems to be the quickest solution but it only provides temporary relief. There must be something out there that can be done before the Great Depression happens again... for it is safe to assume that you will be the next casualty of a recession called “unrequited love.”

“Socialist” perspectives may always be used – that is, of friends' much-needed intervention. You can always heed their advice. You can always listen. You can burn the lines of your broadband, your mobile and even your lungs in the midst of your neverending coffee and booze heart-to-heart talks but at the end of the day, it is just a standard policy – one that has long been there – that you need. This is the framework. This should be the mould that shapes your perspective.

Why does love cause so much unrest? Why does it destabilize even the most robust beings? Why can't humans be Marxists when it comes to love, where everyone works and earns equally? Can't the proletariat converge to attain this equality?

However, in this age of capitalism, you can acquire and accumulate more than the necessary to beef up your market value and increase your investments. You can be the tall, dark and handsome Harvard-educated Juan, now a corporate big shot and named Manila's Most Eligible Bachelor. But still, there is no such thing as security for people and emotions, just like financial markets, are unstable.

Nothing is fair in love. Once you have fallen, you have to be open to the possibility that a thud may come next. The Spartan in you can always aim to conquer and spend all your useful energy to beat all the odds but when bankruptcy is inevitable, a soft landing is always your best alternative. You can only put up defenses to cushion yourself – cutting down on losses and saving all your chips for that rainy day.

With all the big players around in your trade, it is really frightening to think about what a meltdown can do to a player your size. Again, THE standard policy must apply. Plus, it will have to take a lot of faith, prayers and by-the-book advices from the equivalent of Marx, Keynes and Friedman.

So what do you do when the supply is low and your demand is high? How do you safeguard the real when the unseen and intangible is already on a  m e l t d o w n ?