THE Queen of England recently posed this question: Why did no one predict the credit crunch ?
The response from the professor, who was attending to her, was so straightforward that it was obvious that the world would not be in such a big financial mess if people with the authority had simply asked the right question.
"At every stage, someone was relying on somebody else and everyone thought they were doing the right thing," he said.
It is a dilemma faced not only by great and powerful nations like the United States and Britain but right here in Singapore as well.
Put simply, someone is assuming that someone else will be doing the right thing to ensure that we ride out the financial storm safely.
And many people here are assuming that the Government has all the solutions to the problems at hand.
Take the increasingly serious credit squeeze faced by small and medium sized firms for example.
When I was gathering views to write a column on the subject two weeks ago, I was appalled by the type of reactions I was getting from the professionals like auditors and lawyers who must be aware of the financial trauma which their clients were facing.
"The Government has a lot of feedback already, and they have so many scholars. They will know what to do," one accountant said when asked for his views.
Surely, even a doctor must know what is wrong with his patient before he can diagnose the ailment and prescribe the correct medicine.
But the $2.3 billion emergency life support extended by the Government does not seem to be getting through to the SME patients which needed it.
In the three weeks since it was launched on Dec 1, loans applications from 30 companies worth $5 million were approved.
In contrast, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson used up all the US$350 billion given to him by the US Congress to recapitalise troubled financial institutions in less than two months
It is not that the SME patients had been exactly helpful in identifying the problem. It is extremely frustrating to talk to them. They don’t want to be identified and they don’t want to be quoted. They like to brag about their achievements but not their failings.
They would talk about the tight general credit situation, the reluctance of banks to lend, and the problems faced by their friends in getting loans. In other words, anything to avoid cast the spotlight on the sort of problems which they were facing.
In all, I wrote a commentary, a news analysis, a news story and a blog on the subject in the past two weeks.
Given the importance which small and medium sized firms play in our economy, employing the bulk of our workforce and forming a large fraction of the counters listed on the Singapore Exchange, this is too serious a problem to ignore.
It is good to learn that the Government will shoulder more of its share of insurance premiums for loans to try to get much-needed credit flowing to the business community.
But more problems are likely to flare up in the dark months ahead. Let’s not assume that someone else will be doing something right to make sure that everybody ride out of the crisis safely together.
For better or for worse, we are all in this financial quandary together, and we should take a more pro-active stance to tackle flashpoints before they snowball into a big crisis.
It will not be an easy year ahead but there is no need to be despondent. As the old saying goes: Look after the present and the future will take care of itself.
Happy New Year.