Daily Archives: October 10, 2008

Asia’s Advice to US Financial Problems: Act Fast

As the global financial system sinks deeper into the abyss, policymakers and economists in Asia are reflecting on their own past financial meltdowns in search of lessons that could help the U.S. and Europe. As ministers for the G-7 group of industrialized nations meet in Washington today to discuss the crisis, Japanese officials in particular are expected to offer up guidance to their Western colleagues. “Japan can be of help by letting them know our experience of struggling” with economic turmoil, Japan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters Tuesday.

The message will be blunt: If you want to restore confidence in stock markets and among financial institutions, recapitalize your banks — quickly.  You can view the whole article at Time.com.

Seqouia Capital’s Tough Talk to Start-Ups

Seqouia Capital, arguably the smartest venture capital investor in business (Google, Apple, etc), is sounding the alarm and asking its portfolio companies to buckle down for what could be the worst economic downturn of their relatively short lives.

The fund organized a meeting yesterday where it invited entreprenuers/CEOs from its portfolio companies. The attendees were greeted by a cute image of a Grave Stone, with the happy message “RIP GOOD TIMES”. Most disturbing message from the meeting was that this economic turnaround won’t be quick. They talked about “years” instead.

You can watch the entire slideshow by clicking HERE.