If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...

There are many 'ifs' facing Barack Obama and Gordon Brown if they are to succeed in seeing us through the global economic crisis but one thing is for sure, cool heads and decisive action have served both polticians well over the past couple of months. Make no mistake the fundamental challenges are immense but they can be overcome:
If the fiscal stimuli in an increasingly interconnected world are coordinated between countries in their implementation.
If they get the timing right so that they have the maximum impact.
If we can marginalise the views of those who are against borrowing now for a classic Keynsian expansion to kick start the economy (Cameron's position is analagous to a doctor not wanting to use the defribillators on a patient whose heart has stopped for fear of future electricity bills.)
If we realise how deep this international crisis is and how very interdependant we are as nation states such that no country retreats into isolationism and no country is hampered by oppositions who delay action for political gain.
If we can force the banks to lend to small busineses with pre-crisis elasticity as a price for the huge public bailouts we granted them.
If we accept that economics is a science as well as an art and the decisive manner in which policy is implemented can be equally as important as choosing the correct policies.( Thatcher was against the ERM, Lawson for it.Its not that either position could have been characterized as right or wrong but it was the appearance of a weak government that led to the markets being bold enough to bet against the pound and lead to its collapse.) Statements by George Osborne that there may be a run on the pound are highly irresponsible and can become self fulfilling prophecies. Our politicians must close ranks as they would in a time of war.
If we believe enough in the soaring rhetoric of our politicians such that they can instill hope; a 'rational exuberance' if you like to counterbalnce 'the irrational
exuberance' that has driven us into this wilderness.
If the media can check their cynicism without comprimising their judgement and 'act as men' in seeing their role as leaders too in this battle as guardians of our morale
If we do not neglect the poor;an action which so often leads to revolution and war,
Then indeed as in in the words of Kipling in his great poem 'If' ,the earth can be ours 'and everything that's in it.'