Friday, October 03, 2008

Market uncertainty ..

Lehman Brothers collapsed. The question now is 'who is next ?'

Many American giants are finding themselves vulnerable in this financial turmoil as the on-going credit crisis see many lay-offs in MNCs. Good examples are Hewlett Packard, HSBC and Citigroup. These employers are now seeing many of their employees through the door with a golden hand shake.

So are we also hit in Asia ? Unfortunately yes. The down side of globalisation has shown its colors. We all thought with the rising of China and India , this two power houses can play shield to the growth of Asia. Apparently not.

Both India and China has seen tremendous growth over the last few years but things are slowing down as both countries are still developing but at a slower rate. Why ? Uncertainty. Projects are held back. Exports have taken a dive as every where else in the world consumes lesser.

No country lives alone. Local stock markets plunge when bad news is heard in Wall Street. When the US Senate passes a bill to rescue dying banks, Asia cheers.

We are inter-dependant. We survive on each others' growth and mourn together when losses are made.

Would it be better if every country go on the tracks of nationalization instead? If that happens, we in Singapore will sink faster than everyone else.

Do you now see why our government has injected funds into the ailing finiancial institutions belonging to the US ? We needed to cling on to a safety net that initially didn't belong to us. We needed to stay linked to the big boys and even if nationalization is going to happen else where in the world , we can still survive on dividends paid out to our government who in turn provide us with more GST credits. :)

And who is government ? PAP!

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