The economic crisis,your views

[Dan1089]

First & foremost I want to extend a hand of welcome to all the newbies,see you lot already feel at home.Moving onto more serious matters,the economic crisis is without doubt this year's biggest newsmaker.It has seen massive job losses,countries going bankrupt and the biggest corporations begging for bailouts.The JSE is fucked and without a doubt so is yours with all share indexes are all closing at record lows.The outlook is bleak as we all await for the US economy to fucking stabilise already.Until then methinks we are still in for hard times.Some people even dropped the "d word",depression.I highly doubt it will come to that.It hasnt been all bad though,inflation is on the decline,so are food and fuel.I'm scared though because a drastic slash in costs across the board can lead to the other d word,deflation.WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT ON YOUR CURRENCY?My currency,the Rand strongly depreciated in value as investors found shelter in the dollar,abandoning our other commodities like gold.It would be really nice if we had members from other so called "emerging markets" so as to get a more holistic view on the situation,calling all the gheys in India!That was meant to be funny btw.So whats your take on the situation?Oh,do you even give a fuck?

[CardShark]

People need to spend money as businesses are struggling too much

[Woolfe]

Unfortunately, from the perspective of an economist, this is an incredibly difficult situation to control, as overwhelming lack of industry and consumer confidence, combined with overall increasing prices of crude oil and natural resources from foreign imports meaning rising base costs, mean that spending is likely to continue to slow and the economy to slip further into recession unless a significant injection of cash is made into the economy as a whole, not just the banking sector.

However that said, the injection of finance into the banking sector (despite what's been grumbled about wasting taxpayers money, bail-out, etc) has been hugely beneficial in firstly securing consumer finance and savings, and secondly in creating an initial, small multiplier effect by increasing the ability of the consumer to spend, even if just slightly so.

The ideal solution, if the markets were a little less volatile and the economic impact a bit more guaranteed, would be a direct injection of government cash, such as by tax refunding as per past examples, to low- and middle-income households, creating a direct multiplier effect and theoretically increasing the economic growth by a significant amount more than the amount actually injected by the government.

If you're not familiar with the multiplier effect, put simply it states that:

An injection of cash into an economy does not just generate growth equal to the amount injected. As the effect of the cash moves from consumer to business, business to business(supplier), business to employee (consumer) and thus consumer to business again, economic growth increases as a multiple of the injection of finance.

Of course that's not indefinite, but it can be a great "First Aid" to get an economy if not out of recession, at least moving in the opposite direction.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on this cheery topic. =)

Ky xx

[fjp999]

Just heard a great comment from a financial analysis: "The patient been on the couch for a while and the bottle is in the fridge!"

Poo, I watch way too much political tv and from what I am understanding it all comes down to GREED!

Ya specifically asked about India Dan. From my best friend ever... She has been looking at buying another piece of property in her home country of India. She has a lot of family in the financial biz and they are all telling her to wait for 3 months as ALL prices for EVERYTHING will be dropping dramatically. They also tell her that every one is running on fumes over there.

Now if you think that the USA economy is the reason/answer then ya really dont understand the WORLD economy. See, the issue aint the USA economy. The GREED is world wide and if there wasnt a country involved in the scheme, well I would like to know about that.

It kinda reminds me of the current wars. At this time it seems that many want to believe that this is USAs war but what short memories. Dont remember the exact country count that entered Afg/Iraq but it was pretty high. I would also suggest that if your country didnt participate directly in feet on the ground then there was probably some industry that benefitted greatly in some way... if it was just selling nuts and bolts.

See, it is my opinion that your government, which ever it may be, isnt looking out for you the individual but for their GREEDY, selfish selves. It is much easier to control the populace when it is a "Third World Country" and that is what many of your governments would like to see. I certainly see the current admin over here pushing that real hard and they still have nearly two months to accomplish as much as they can.

So, good luck populace. Youre gonna need it

p.s. OMG, the most beautiful snowfall has just started: Huge beautiful snowflakes falling so beautifully. It truly touches the heart




and since ya asked: Insert happy signature here. How bout this: To My Great Love fjp999 - Healing Prayers Coming Your Way

[XRIMO]

I am jealous of your snow Frank.

For me, there is one good thing in this whole economic crisis...

Gas prices are falling (they are as low as they were when I started driving, I nearly flipped my lid when it cost me less than $40 to fill my car)

[Star Twister]

I get quite annoyed with it all really especially the media hyping things up.

We've had problems like this before, yet we ride through it.

I just wish the media weren't so good at scaremongering.....

mile:

[zeon]

The economic crisis i dont tend to worry about unless i was in a different job... Due to the nature of my job which envoles being a bastard lol people wont ever give up their cars so we wont be laid off and be one of the several businesses still making money through the crisis.. It is sad so many people loose jobs etc but eventually something will snap

[CardShark]

I just wish the media weren't so good at scaremongering.....

TEENAGERS STABBING EVERYONE, HIDE IN YOUR HOUSES!
NO BEES TO GROW PLANTS, LIFE IS COMING TO A END
GLOBAL WARMING, DON'T TRAVEL ANYWHERE!
RUNNING LOW ON WATER, SPAIN WILL BE THE WATER CAPITAL!
NO MONEY!!!!!!!!

I can't even watch the news anymore 1 It affects me too much and 2 its plain bull...

[Mark]

Economic crisis, I feel that is a bit overused and not true. Yes at one point the financial future did seem bad, but now to be honest I don't feel that its going to go as bad as many are saying.

Personal experience: In my local area in August/September house prices fell by around £20-£40k. (I have this site email me about local house sales not sure why :S), But anyway now the prices which a few have sold for lately are back to normal if not higher than before. Which kind of puts some reassurance into me.

Then I work for Primark stores, and our sales have rocketed due to this credit crisis, and yes I am aware we sell clothes dirt cheap and people swap to cheaper shops, but at the same time, It still shows people have money to spend.. And the amount of new stores we are opening in the UK and europe over the next few years is amazing, creating many job opportunity's. Also John lewis which previously had 16 store outlets, are now expanding to double their stores over the next 2 years. Which may not seem alot, but many other organisations are doing the same, which is quite a hopeful sign.

I know we will never get as bad as the recession in the 80's, just because we have learnt from experience and things may get bad but never huge financial loss. The way I see it is, companies and the government and even the public have taken notice to this recession and are taking action, This action will steer people from falling into the trap they did in the 80's.

But its better to recognise the current problem than choose to ignore, so where as I agree to an extent the media hype is overtop, I guess its good that people are being informed.

But then none of us can predict the future, so adopt the approach many older generations tell you, (My nan says a lot), 'Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves' x