Bolling: Central Banks Should Go Long

I have spent 12 hours a day and most weekends engulfed in thought and opinion surrounding this current financial crisis. I have listened to and interviewed economists, congressmen and congresswomen, senators, administrators, regulators and CEOs.

There is only one conclusion I can come to. It is clear that nothing is clear ... to anyone . There has been enough finger-pointing to fill a century of political opinion. Banks blame lenders, lenders blame regulators, regulators blame politicians, and politicians, being the carnivores they are, blame each other.

It has gotten to the point where, if I am interviewing someone and he or she starts the interview with a line about how we got here, I stop them mid-thought and ask, "We all have our own ideas about how we got here, now... can you offer any help going forward?"

I have spent some time with my mentor on this crisis. He is a Wharton graduate and a brilliant guy. We have tossed ideas around, and he is very pragmatic when it comes to this crisis. He and I completely agree on the "how we got here" theory. The sleazy subprime lending, the levering up by households (buying too much and too many homes, and credit-card and auto debt) and businesses, and Wall Street's repackaging of those mortgages into derivatives that can be traded and leveraged like a Ponzi or pyramid. Guess who got caught when the pyramid unraveled as they always do? All of the above.

Mark and I also agree that the long-term fix is to solve the credit crunch. We need to get money flowing from central banks through the finance industry and ultimately to businesses large and small and to individuals. That will spark economic activity, which seems to be frozen at the moment. It should be a worldwide effort coming from central banks from all countries, not just the G-7 or G-20.