We Are All Africans

About a year or so ago a poster designed by Milton Glazer began appearing on the sides of telephone booths in Manhattan. It featured a hand, the fingers of which displayed the colors of the world’s races. The title of the poster was "We are all African." The brilliance of its design evoked the factual knowledge that we all have evolved from the African continent and the emotional truth that we are all our brother’s keeper. Its intent was to encourage people to become involved in fighting world poverty.

But there is now another way that “we are all Africans,” and it is one that is increasingly uncomfortable and increasingly impossible to ignore. It is the story of interest rates and the management of risk.