A former colleague of mine once offered the opinion that industry superannuation funds are reconstructed socialists – despite their union influence, these funds have grown and benefited from a global capitalist world.
Now thanks to a huge and rather persistent bear, it seems capitalists may have to do some reconstructing themselves.
It started with the United States Government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the American International Group.
Now US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson has put together an $850 billion rescue package for Wall Street.
While the deal is still up in the air as this magazine goes to print, the sheer fact Wall Street bankers are relying on their Government for a bailout shows this crisis has reached truly historical proportions.
“The party is over. The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced before the package went to the House of Representatives.
Pelosi still supported the bailout, reminding the American people it was “not about a bailout of Wall Street” but a “buy in to turn the economy around”.
The Australian Government and industry was equally hopeful the package would be approved.
ANZ chief executive Mike Smith quipped at an industry lunch that if the package was not approved, “he may have to resort to farming”.
There is no doubt some sort of rescue will eventually emerge. People are now asking what the lessons to be learnt are.
This month’s special report looks at the future of investment banking. Already it seems institutions are taking heed of market failures.
Deleveraging is the new black as banks begin a process of ‘balance sheet shrinkage’ in order to bring back some sort of order to their assets.
According to the report, those that survive will be institutions that “didn’t compromise balance sheet quality for the sake of short-term growth”.
Amid all this market confusion and gloom, Investor Weekly thought it was time to revisit some former chiefs of the super industry.
Alice Uribe spoke with four ex-fund heads about their experiences, memories and, of course, lessons learnt.
A persistent theme that united all four was their dedication to member needs; this belief guiding them as they oversaw million-dollar and in some cases billion-dollar funds.
One executive said that it “is getting harder and harder to run” such funds and fund executives may need deeper expertise as they steer their funds through these challenging times.
Perhaps the super world can offer a place for those reconstructed capitalists, after lessons learnt of course.
