Troublesome Crisis

I think it's about 2 years now since the financial crisis hits US housing and mortgage. I don't see any sign of recovery in the next 6 months or in the near future. I fear that it is likely to continue worsen in the next 12 months. It has cracked US and spread its sickness to Europe. Now's is creeping into Asia with Indonesia and Japan became one of the first 2 countries to be infected.

On the news, we see major airports shut down, banks at the verge of bankcrupcy, US Governments having to use $1700 billion to bail out troublesome giant financial, insurance and mortgage companies early this month. UK and Australia are following the moves. Europe is tailing from behind. What do these tell us? Are we going through another world depression again? I fear that we are heading that way.

What dissapointed me is the way Malaysia Government is handling this crisis. I hardly read in the paper or the TV about plans to minimise the global impact it will do to us. I haven't seen any of our policy makers and BNM cracking their heads to rescue the situation. All I see is the news telling me that it's going to be alright. It's going to be minimal impact on Malaysia...Are we waiting for it to hit us at the face before our think-tankers sit down and brainstorm? Do we think that just because we got out safely from the 1997 crisis we could do it again? I don't think we will be so lucky twice. Our stock market is lost 1/3 of its value since January this year. It keeps announcing its worst level. Today is the worst in 28 months. Inflation in many countries are at all time high. Malaysia is not spare of this. The global meltdown is so real, yet I am very worried that the government and central bank having come up with plans to weather it.

I'm worried that when it hit us, it's already too late. I'm worry about the unemployment, credit and the mortgage. I believe majority of us are in the rat race and we need our regular paycheck to cover our monthly survival. We need money to settle house loan, car loan, children education, credit cards, groceries and utility bills. A delay in paycheck has a serious impact. I had first hand experience in this.

My odeal lasted about 3 years. It started during 2000 when the dot com bubble burst and the multinational company I worked rely on US market. Our clients and business are US and Canada dependance. During that time, Malaysia wasn't so great either. It just recovered from the 1997 financial crisis. Our VP announced the company's situation in an emergency meeting. I think that was the most open session we had. Questions like is it going to bankcrupt or sold off was fired away and my VP answered it honestly. During that time, it wasn't easy to look for a new job. I remember my colleague told me that any job he applied, he is sure that other colleagues in our company applied too. Supplies were far more than demand. I couldn't find a job so I had to stick to the company and accepted delay paycheck. My salary was 1.5 - 2 months delayed. Earlier stage was 2 months, then it was 1.5 months for almost 3 years. I was renting a room only at RM200. I took LRT to work. I cook at home. Due to my non-commitments, I was able to weather this through. Although I ended up oweing credit cards a lot and no longer shopping for clothes. I was earning RM2k then and it was already difficult for me. Each paycheck has to be spread into the next 3 months.

Now, I have mortgage to pay, maintenance bills, tranportation and insurance bills. With the value of our curency in international market and the worst spending power, I don't think I can go though this round smoothly. My salary has inreased about 50% since the first crisis. However, I feel that it's going to be much tougher because of the essential items increased. I feel like my spending power is the same as the first crisis but now I have mortgages to commit. I don't dare to foresee how bad we are going to be hit by the global meltdown. Is there many of you out there in the same situation?