Wall Street woes and the IT industry

I am not going to go into a news report of the entire Wall Street/banking industry bailout mess. I think everyone is already aware of the problem and its wall-to-wall coverage in all media outlets right now. Simply reporting it would be redundant and I doubt there is anything I would say about it that hasn’t been said by someone already.

I would like to say something about its potential effects on our industry.

There is a lot of speculation about how this will play out in the IT market. Some industry pundits say the current situation will have little or no effect on our business. In fact, it could strengthen it. Others say it will affect IT in the short or long term, although to what degree it is uncertain.

We really don’t have a lot of past performance metrics in such an event to make any predictions in this matter. The banking industry has been around for centuries. Wall Street itself has a long history to draw from. IT is a young market compared to the others and while deeply integrated into both the finance and stock markets, the tech sector as we know it today hasn’t been in the mix long enough to predict any real future based on past performance in such a scenario.

There was no IT industry during the Great Depression of 1929. Although tech stocks were around during the great recession of the 70’s the IT industry in general was not as we know it today. The recession we experienced during the new millenium was a different animal under different circumstances. What we have now is something the IT industry has never experienced before. So, what data do we really have to make any sort of honest assessment of the future in IT?

The truth is, no one really knows what is going to happen next. It is all pure speculation. So my personal advice, take it or leave it, is to sit tight, hold on, stay alert, watch the market very carefully, and be ready to adapt as necessary. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. In other words, just be prepared.

 

 

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