Men of Words

The Last Post of 2008

As the world counts down to the last few seconds of 2008, it is not suprising that many have hoped for the better in the coming year.

Yet this hope seems far for the people of Israel and Palestine as a war currently ravages their lands.

2008 has been an eventful year indeed. With little doubt, making it to the top of the news have been the financial crisis.

The financial storm which swept across across the globe has definitely disrupted the lives of billions of people. The poor foundation and management of financial institutions and the failure of regulators has saw an unprecedented fall out of top economies. The full effects of the financial tsunami is believed to have not shown its ugly face, and is expected to manifest itself in 2009.

Thailand’s political situation has its share of the news headlines. The world witnessed the drama which unfolded in Bangkok, and has saw the short-lived terms of their prime ministers. How long will the current one last?

Beijing basked in full glory of the world for their stunning show for the 2008 Olympics. Yet not before having gones through the pains of the Sichuan Earthquake and its tainted milk scandal which has left the world mortified.

Last but not least, the United States has witnessed change. Relatively new in politics as compared to other candidates, Barack Obama has overcome all odds to achieve the huge believe and support from the people of America.

As a new dawn embraces America, hopes are high for president-elect Obama to resolve the mess which has crippled the global economy.

WIll 2009 be a better year for everyone?

I do sincerely wish so.

Tags: america, beijing olympics, china, economy, economy crisis, food scare, global financial crisis, obama barack, Politics, thailand

Global Financial Crisis 2008: A Quick Review

For the past one month, we lived in a period of great financial turmoil in recent history. Unfortunately, the torrent of bad news is not expected to end yet.

With the dust from the subprime mortgage crisis still unsettled, not all is known about the severity of the current financial fallout. With banks announcing further (and even further) write offs, and global liquidity on freeze, the end to the crisis is definitely not in sight.

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Tags: economy, economy crisis, global financial crisis, global recession

AIG, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers

Within the past week, the world witnessed shocking drama on Wall Street.

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, aged 150.

Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America at the age of 94.

As both events occurred on Monday, AIG seemed near to collapse under financial pressure.

No one must have envisaged one day that these banking giants would fail and one of the world’s largest insurance corporation on the verge of bankruptcy. Not until the collapse of Bear Stearns. Banks worldwide have suffered more than $500 billion of write-downs and loan losses since the global credit crisis began more than a year ago.

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Tags: AIG, economy crisis, global financial crisis, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, subprime mortgage crisis

Global Inflation Crisis July Coverage

While global economy outlook has gone down over the past months, inflation hasn’t.

Let’s review some interesting data on the current inflation rate in some countries which have taken a heavy toll.

In ZImbabwe, we are witnessing an annual inflation rate of 2.2 million percent. That’s the official data released by the government. Analyst would put the actual rate at 10 million percent!

Without a doubt, the country is experiencing an extreme case of hyperinflation.

In fact, the ZImbabwe government has recently introduced a 100 billion dollar note, which ironically is not even sufficient for someone to afford a bread.

So what is the Zimbabwe government doing right now?

Interestingly, they have decided to strip the zeros off the currency as the denominations proved too hard to manage.

In Europe, inflation rate continues to soar to record heights at 3.3% and 3.8% in Germany and England respectively.

In Asia, the Singapore economy threads along an inflation rate of 7.5% in June and South Korea is reaching a 10 year high at 5.7%. Thailand saw a rate of 8.9% in June.

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Tags: economics, global financial crisis, global inflation crisis, inflation, oil prices, price hike

Where is the world economy heading?

Failure of IndyMac Bank, the following collateral damage to Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) and Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association), the weakening US dollar, Wall Street’s straight fall, global stocks continues south, weakening sentiments and confidence of investors and consumers around the world.

I guess that kind of sums up the major economy climate across the world for the past week. I have not seen such huge economic corrections of such magnitude that has brought the whole world into a cloud of poor sentiments and uncertainty. I’d say that the current economy crisis is unprecedented in recent years.

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Tags: economy, global financial crisis, global inflation crisis, global recession, price hike, subprime mortgage crisis, US