Since FT members hail from all parts of the globe, I am curious how the current economic situation is personally affecting you, or your family, in your part of the world.

Has your lifestyle changed over the past year or so, due to financial factors?

Have you altered or adjusted your future plans, based on current conditions, or what you see ahead on the economic horizon?

Are you anxious about your financial situation or your employment situation? How is that anxiety affecting you? How are you coping with that?


To briefly answer some of my own questions...

I was gradually moving into retirement by working part time, and continuing to gradually decrease the number of hours and days I've been working, with the intention of completely retiring within the next year. I thought I had enough in retirement funds and savings to be able to manage without an income from employment.

Right now, I really doubt I can stop working. Retirement is definitely on hold.

The prices of "basic necessities" have been increasing, so with my own personal belt tightening measures over the past year--cutting down on purchases I really don't need, not eating out, not driving any more than I really have to, using a debit card rather than a credit card when I shop, so I never spend more than I have at hand, and I'm more aware of exactly what I'm spending etc.--I thought I was doing pretty well to manage my own cash flow problems, while still being able to put some money aside into savings.

I'm also pretty debt free. I own my own home and car, so I don't have loan or mortgage payments to make. I pay my credit card balances off in full every month. In that sense, I'm in a much more fortunate situation than many other people.

I've always been relatively responsible about managing my finances, and I thought that if I continued my basically frugal ways, with an occasional splurge here and there, I'd be substantially all right, and able to manage in the present economic environment.

But, after the financial crisis in the U.S. exploded this week, I'm not so sure...about anything....

About 30% of the investments my IRA accounts are in fairly diversified equity mutual stock funds. Over the past year, performance went from sluggish returns, to seeing large chunks of my gains in the past several years start to evaporate rapidly. What's happened just this week has been rather eye-popping in terms of abrupt drop in value.
I've stayed pretty calm only because I figure the market will go up again...eventually...and I don't need to draw out those monies yet, so I don't have to sell anything right now. And drops in the market can provide good buying opportunities (talk about optimism).
Besides, the balance of my IRA, was in money market mutual funds, with an investment company, so I felt that money was pretty safe, even if the returns were pretty low, Now I'm not so sure about that. At one brokerage company this week, the value of their money market fund dropped below $1 a share--to 97 cents. Now I'm nervous even about what I thought was a very safe, conservative place to park my retirement money. Can I lose money in my money market funds?

For at least the past year, I've really kept an eye on FDIC protection limits at the banks I do business with. I inherited some money during that period, and because no place else looked safe or stable, I parked it in one year CD's at banks, trying to get the best interest rates I could. Unfortunately, the banks paying the highest rates are the ones in the most financial trouble--that's why they offer higher rates to attract new depositers. But, I had faith in the FDIC protection, stayed under their limits, and bought CD's in two of those banks. One has worked out fine, and I got a good return, but I will probably move the money to a different bank when the CD matures next month. Another, more recent CD investment at Washington Mutual Bank (the largest savings and loan bank in the country) is causing me anxiety. The bank is now on the verge of bankruptcy (something I didn't realize when I bought the CD), and is frantically trying to sell itself at the moment to avoid going out of business. I don't think I will lose any money, but the whole idea of the FDIC possibly taking over that bank fills me with uncertainty.
The balance of my regular savings and checking accounts is with two large commercial banks, I'm under the FDIC limits, and I'm not worried about those funds, but the returns are as puny as you can get.

So, here I am, still wanting to retire, but feeling that may be off the table for now. I'm suddenly afraid the funds I thought would last through my retirement might not do so. My investments and savings are earning less and less, so they contribute less to my current income, and to my nest egg. The new car I was thinking about buying, will be delayed until things look brighter. Forget the big screen TV I've been dreaming of (since TV is my main source of entertainment, and I figured if I can't afford to go out much, I'd like to enjoy myself more at home), along with anything else frivolous, at least until the long range economic situation improves or becomes a lot clearer. I just found out my property taxes will be going up, and I live in an area where property taxes are already sky high, and that will affect a lot of things around here.

While I, fortunately, have no reason to panic about any of this, I am definitely feeling uncomfortable and somewhat anxious about my situation and the economy and my own financial future. And I have no idea where is a really safe place to park my money--except maybe under the mattress.

So, how is the economy affecting you, and what are you doing to cope with it all?

I have no investments, but from the rest of my family I know theirs have been down for a few years now. Maybe that was a sign of what was really happening while the governments told us the economy was fine. If it was fine why did the units and shares all do so badly?

What I notice is my tiny car now costs over £30 to fill up. and things like bread and milk are now almost double what they were a year ago. At a time when people are getting less on their savings and losing their jobs the inflation is going to make everyone suffer more than any other factor as it affects everyone equally. Even those who don't drive will pay the extra on other prices for the deliveries and public transport of all types has also shot up.

People will now have to divert far more of their incomes into essentials and have far less left over for everything else. All I can hope over here is house prices continue to fall so more people can afford to buy houses again, that was what drove inflation up combined with oil prices, and at least one factor in all the others is slowly being corrected. Those with houses will also benefit as anyone selling will be able to get more when they do if prices fall as the gap between what they have and what they want will shrink. If that happens hopefully it will balance much of the other excesses and people may start paying a sensible part of their incomes on a mortgage instead of borrowing up to 10 times their incomes which every person on earth should have seen was wrong.

I'm in yet another job transition because I've moved so often for the family. Our bank is in the news today where we have our mortgages and bank accounts. Just peachy! Yes, we have an ARM but not a sub prime. However, the equity has been lost to just coping with life's events. The value of the property has taken a plunge, but, it's in one of the most desirable real estate areas and close to transportation, shopping, post office and schools within walking distance. One can only hope that things will float slowly up again.

I am looking for work and in many ways, the confidence of employers is shot, therefore, hiring isn't happening a whole lot. I suspect many of the jobs posted are just headhunters trying to appear like they're doing something.

The area in which I live has been spared the worst ravages of the housing crisis so far. Home prices have always been more moderate where I live and seem to be holding steady or actually appreciating slightly. The massacres that seem to be happening on a daily basis on Wall Street are affecting the portfolios of many ordinary working Americans. A friend of mine recently told me that his 401K has lost more than half its value. I am aware of some local companies freezing wages or keeping them to a bare minimum for the year 2009. Health care premiums appear to be rising about 11% which of course means an overall pay cut for many. It's a bad situation all around, and I of course will not polemicize on how we got to this unhappy state. It's a recession for the US, and I think it may turn out to be the worst one since the recession of the early 1980s that pretty much permanently crippled our northern industrial base. The northern rust belt states die a little more each year, but we live in a growth area with a more modest cost of living that so far has been spared the worst of these latest hard times. If things start to go south (pun intended) in the Carolinas and Georgia then you know the country is in really serious economic trouble.

I had intended working until I am sixty-five and having put my children through university was expecting to be able to increase my savings which had been eaten into whilst bringing them up. Then ill-health hit me and I lost my job at the age of fifty-eight so instead of increasing my savings I have had to eat into them in order to top up my benefits from Social Security.

Then I had a medical negligence case in the pipeline which, if I won, would have made me financially secure but that has now been dropped.

So I have my social security payments to live on, then have to draw on my savings. The larger part of my savings is invested and I have watched the value plummet recently so I cannot draw on those, I need to sit it out and just hope that it picks up before I need that money.

My house was bought by my ex-husband and he still owns half of it. Really I need to downsize but cannot as he will want his half of the money from the sale and half of the money will not be sufficient to buy a replacement home. Also if I sell I would need to redecorate first as it is in need, then would probably need to buy new furniture and have a new place made to my liking - so moving isn't really an option.

My car will see me out, hopefully, it is three years old and has little milage on he clock, about 8,500 miles.

I have an appointment at one of my banks tomorrow, the appointment was booked before the latest banking news in the UK. My intention was to move my savings from the present bank to the bank where I maintain my current account and small deposit account. I was going to give three months notice to move the money but am seriously considering forfeiting 90 days interest to move it now.

We have no guarantees here in Jersey, if a bank fails we lose everything. I really don't know what to do, whether to split my money up and get lesser interest or to do what I had intended and putting it all in one of the UK's largest banks.

Now the latest news for us is that in future if we fall ill in the UK we will not be covered so it looks as if I might need very expensive travel insurance just to visit the UK - more expense.

I have lived through many highs and lows in the economy. "This too shall pass!" Hunker down and hang on everyone.

We're in a reasonable position at the moment - mortgage is 20 years old and doesn't take up such a larger proportion of our income as it did. We probably have less money to spend on extras than we did, and that leads to a knock on effect. If people aren't spending, jobs are lost and the whole thing spirals.

Last month we were all moaning at work that our annual profit share was unlikely to be the 10% that it has been for the last 10 years or so. This month I am worried that I'll lose my job. I should be able to get another one, as I'm not fussy what I do and can work more hours to make up a difference in may.

The big concern is if OH loses his job. He's been made redundant twice before, but has had reasonable payoffs and found work fairly quickly. He's in his mid-fifties now, and realistically the chances of re-employment at anywhere near the sort of salary he's on now are pretty slim. However, it hasn't happened yet and may not happen at all. Worrying won't prevent anything so I don't worry!

Local economy here still pretty healthy; our town has three economic engines - oilpatch, military training base, and agriculture. Oil is down but still high, the war is still on, and people need to eat.

My job is secure, unless the idiots currently running the place drive us into bankruptcy with their foolish spending. Don't think they will, the board is starting to watch them carefully. House paid for, car has a good few years left on it. One kid in University, one in high school.

Schooling costs aside, the three of us could live for a few years on what we earn and the savings I've got in the local bank, unless living costs rise considerably more than they have in the last few years - we can be frugal without too much trouble. We could handle a doubling of costs without much strain.

My investments have lost 5% over the last year, as of three weeks ago. That's when I moved almost everything out of the US, and into Canadian bonds, which is where most of the money already was. I'm not really too worried about bank collapses - Canadian banks did not venture too far into the subprime mess, and our economy is still fairly sound, especially in the west. We've been in a huge boom for the last few years until just now. It's probably still a boom, but everything is so confused it's hard to tell. The big worry is how far we will be pulled into the hole by US collapses.

As long as the whole world does not go down into a big spiral like the Great Depression, we should be able to ride it out. If that happens, though, who knows - all bets are off.

I'm not too affected personally, as I'm still a dependant of my parents. The only thing I've really noticed is the rising price of gas, but it's not so high that I plan to stop driving.

I've lived through many highs and lows in the economy too, MadMartha, but I don't recall quite anything like this. This time the problem is global, and that makes a big difference. Someone on CNBC just referred to our economy as being in a "death spiral".

And I read this in today's N.Y. Times

Quote:

---

Reflecting concerns about the health of the global financial system, the Federal Reserve and the world’s other major central banks significantly escalated their assistance to global markets on Thursday, making almost $200 billion available after bank lending came to a near halt and threatened the global economy.


In a statement released at 3 a.m. in Washington, just as the markets opened in Europe, the Fed said that it had authorized a $180 billion expansion of its temporary reciprocal currency arrangements, known as swap lines, to allow banks to borrow more dollars in money markets at a lower rates.

Paul Mortimer-Lee, head of market economics in the London office at BNP Paribas, said the move reflected concerns that the financial markets now appeared to be facing their gravest problems since the Depression.

“We’re high on a mountain, with a thin rope and holding on by our fingertips,” he said. “Are policy makers scared? They should be.”

---

I'm feeling increasingly anxious because none of the great financial minds, who have some control, seems to have a firm idea how to get a grip on this current turmoil and nosedive. The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury is trying things that have never been done before, and are much riskier, and that involve billions and billions of dollars. Incredible amounts of money are being thrown at the problem, with effects that achieve stability for only a day or two.

Maybe if I were younger, I'd be a little less worried--for one thing, I'd have a longer number of decent earning years ahead of me.

But, faced with the prospect of either being on a very reduced income, by working part time, or being on a fixed income, by not working at all, as I continue to age, is very frightening if my retirement funds continue to shrink substantially or just fail to keep place with inflation. I do need to worry about the possibility of high medical expenses I might incur sometime in the future, and I have no coverage for either nursing home care or assisted living care, so, if I ever need those things, they come with whopping big bills I would have to pay out of pocket.

I really thought I was in pretty good shape to enjoy a modest, but decent, standard of living throughout my "golden years", but now I'm not so sure about that. For me, that will have a lot to do with how long the current economic turmoil, and it's consequences, continues. From everything I've read, the situation is not going to stabilize anytime soon, and any sort of recovery is very long range.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure what to do. I realized this afternoon that I feel angry about being in this position. I worked hard all my life, managed my own money responsibly, saved for my retirement, avoided piling up debts, and put most of my money in the safest most conservative places I could find. I think I did everything right. I played by the rules. Now I seem to be caught in an economy that has been undone by other people's greed. That does make me mad.

Now I have to worry about even the money market funds in my IRA and whether the FDIC will run out of money bailing out banks so that they won't have enough to protect my deposits if my bank fails next.I'm worried that the way things are going, I'll have to pay $6 for a loaf of bread and $4 for a quart of milk as I watch my available income fall. I'm worried that my property taxes will go so high it will force me out of my home. I'm worried about the quality of my life at a time of life I hoped I would be able to be relatively care free and just enjoy myself.

At the moment, my constant biggest outlay of money, on a weekly basis, is food. I am a very thrifty shopper. I keep track of weekly supermarket specials, in four different supermarkets,and buy where the prices are lowest, and I use coupons from the Sunday newspaper circulars when I can. If I want particular items or brands, I almost always wait until they are on sale before I buy them. But, no matter what I do, I am still awed at how much I am spending. I don't know how families with several children are managing.

I don't buy books any more, I get them from the library. I don't subscribe to magazines, I read things on the internet. I rarely eat out and I bring in very little prepared or take-out food. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie in a theater, and, if I want to see a DVD, I don't go to Blockbuster, I take it out of the library. I can no longer afford to go to the theater or the opera--two of my main passions, and one of the main advantages of living near NYC. I have never had a Starbucks coffee. I shop for bargains in clothing. I don't travel, or even go on vacations. About my only indulgence is my premium cable TV package.

I'm not sure how much more I can cut back on and still have a quality of life I can enjoy. But the dimmer the economic outlook gets, the more anxious I am about spending anything more than I absolutely have to.

And, if I'm spending less, probably so is everyone else around here, which means the stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and just about everything else in this area, can't be doing all that well.

I know I'm more fortunate than a great many other people. I can make ends meet, I can pay my bills right now. I'm worried about tomorrow, and what that reality will be like. And I'm worried about how my government will be able to get out of that enormous debt they've racked up--and what that will wind up costing me.

We all make our little sacrifices...this is what the politicians should constantly be reminded of.

I won't belabor my situation, because it is very unique in that I feel very young and would prefer working longer and harder rather than talking about a retirement.

My job affords me a view of the entire populace, which I worked to my advantiage when I noticed something peculiar.

An avalance of defaults on mortgages was occuring approx. two years ago.

So, I put two and two together, did some investigating, and noticed that all that recent hoopla about real estate was turning.

I was premature, but I put all my investments that had grown nicely, into safe government bonds returning about 4% interest. I feel I saved myself about fifty grand, seeing how many hung in there and did the averaging thing. Not a bad idea, but I have to say that it is best to put everything on hold until we know the severity of these wacky big corporations now folding in tandem.

Now, I would like to put you and myself into the shoes of G.W. Bush, who has been cool as a cucumber throughout his tenure, except for today.

Today, George had no comment about the "soundness" of the economy. Instead, he parked himself in a secret meeting, and must have had some shocking news told to him about a huge amount of new homes and condoes that can't sell because nobody can afford them.

This is my guess...he may actually have been surprised about this, for all I know.

Until they can offer up all that surplus real estate at bargain prices (people can't afford them at their asking prices due to downsizing and loss of good paying jobs...I know, I repeat myself because nobody seems to understand this trend and it's repercussions)...they will sit idle for a long, long time...and this is the main drain on the economy as I see it...this go round.

There has to be ideas about how to deal with this crisis, and from what the news today reported, seems the government wants to buy all the bad loans and put the tax payer in even more jeopardy to bail out the ENTIRE financial sector in one fell swoop.

That's my take, folks.

Hang in there for better times? Dow ran up today? Bah! Bah! Bah!

I am not a seer, so I can't tell how all this will turn out, but as of now this downturn isn't even close to the severity of the recessions of 1974/75 and 1981/83. As for the banks and brokerage houses tanking, the same thing happened with the S&Ls in the late 80s and early 90s. It's too early to tell where this is all going. The basis for most of it is a real estate meltdown. In 1974/75 and 1981/83 there was massive contractions in American industry. In the late 1980s economist Ravi Batra wrote "The Great Depression of 1990". There was an economic downturn, a white collar recession that cost the first President Bush his job, but nothing close to a depression. The recession that began before 9/11/01 was exacerbated by that horrible event, and what was left of the industrial north contracted further. Actually considering all the foreign policy and other mistakes of the Bush administration the economy under his watch has not done all that badly. Why do we have 10-20 million undocumented aliens and record numbers of new citizens if this is an economic wasteland? If we are in a recession it will be the 11th one since the end of WWII. The country survived the previous 10, and a Great Depression sandwiched between two World Wars before all this. Some people have a vested interest in doom and gloom and they only have to be right once.

It is interesting how people, at least in the U.S. have been doing similar things to cope with the economic downturn

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/18/giving.up.irpt/index.html


Sue, the banks in Jersey offer no insurance protection, at all, for deposits? Is that true in England also?

Here you get protection for up to $100,000 per person per account (or $200,000 for a joint account) in each bank that is affiliated with the FDIC. So, even if the bank fails, up to $100,000 of the amount you have in that bank will be safe. And generally, it will be available to you relatively soon after an FDIC takeover of the bank.

Apart from providing security for the investor, I think our FDIC protection also helps to prevent a run on a bank, which would further weaken the stability of a bank even more. If you know your money is protected, there is less reason to rush to pull it out of a weak bank. So, a bank like Washington Mutual, in which I have a CD, is tettering on the brink of bankruptcy right now, but there does not seem to be a significant number of depositers pulling their money out of that bank, other than those who might have been above the FDIC protection limits. So this bank might be able to stay afloat, without a government takeover, until it can be sold. Other weak banks might be able to survive until their balance sheets improve, as long as depositers don't rush to pull out their money.

If people stay calm and don't panic in the current market things will be better too. In the past 5 or 6 days, something like $170 billion was pulled out of individual money market funds with brokerage houses. People got so nervous they moved their money from the money market funds to treasury backed funds. But it happened so quickly, that one firm was forced to shut down one of it's money market funds in order to protect the investor's assets. If that sort of thing keeps happening, it just makes a bad situation relatively worse. Its like everyone stampeding for the same door when someone smells smoke.

It is hard to know what to do with your money right now to keep it safe. I'm certainly more interested in safety right now than rate of return. But I also don't want to tie up a lot of money in long term CD's because I don't know what will happen with interest rates once all the current dust settles. I have two CD's coming due within the next month. One I may reinvest for a year with the same bank, because the bank has a high stability rating. The other CD is in a bank which had some problems. That money I will move to another, more stable bank, and just put it in a regular savings account until I figure out what to do longer term. At the moment I have money in five different banks to insure that it is all safe. It's all becoming rather confusing to keep track of.

If anyone in the U.S. is interested in checking out the stability of their bank, you can do it here

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/ss_home.asp

The actions the government is about to take should help to quell some of the fears about bank failures, the safety of money market funds, and about further nosedives in the stock market. For the time being, it should help to stablize the situation.

The long range ramifications of the government's actions today remain to be seen. Even though these actions might have been necessary, American taxpayers have just been handed a bill that may total in the trillions of dollars. We need to see how that will affect us in the future.

For those in these Forums who seemed to poo-poo or minimize the "gloom and doom" of our current situation, I can only say that "ignorance must be bliss"--the situation could not have been more dire.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
The New York Times
September 20, 2008

Congressional Leaders Were Stunned by Warnings
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — It was a room full of people who rarely hold their tongues. But as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first.

Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill, and they were gathered around a conference table in the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“When you listened to him describe it you gulped," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.

As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it, “There was a long pause in the room.”

Mr. Schumer added, “History was sort of hanging over it, like this was a moment.”

When Mr. Schumer described the meeting as “somber,” Mr. Dodd cut in. “Somber doesn’t begin to justy the words,” he said. “We have never heard language like this.”

Although Mr. Schumer, Mr. Dodd and other participants declined to repeat precisely what they were told by Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson, they said the two men described the financial system as effectively bound in a knot that was being pulled tighter and tighter by the day.

“You have the credit lines in America, which are the lifeblood of the economy, frozen.” Mr. Schumer said. “That hasn’t happened before. It’s a brave new world. You are in uncharted territory, but the one thing you do know is you can’t leave them frozen or the economy will just head south at a rapid rate.”

As he spoke, Mr. Schumer swooped his hand, to make the gesture of a plummeting bird. “You know we’d be lucky ...” he said as his voice trailed off. “Well, I’ll leave it at that.”

In the UK £35,000 per BANK is guaranteed, not per account in one bank. However, in Jersey there is no protection at all even if using a bank with its head office is in the UK.

Jersey only permit banks which are in the top 500 to have branches here, not a lot of consolation.

Today on the radio I heard someone locally saying how this all might be good for Jersey as there will be more people looking for work in the finance industry so they might come here as there is full employment in that sector!

I knew Mr. Schumer. Mr. Schumer was a friend of mine. I don't think....

(Just kidding around, I know the situation is dire and very strange)

Chuck Schumer was at the graduation ceremonies of my daughter in Brooklyn, his old alma mater.

I hate when they equate this past tumultous week as "historic".

It's downright bloody, for all of us.

I also think if these politicians are showboating, or flexing their muscles, I'm not amused.

This is a serious enough mess-up that will not easily be fixed.

Wanton neglect by big banking establishments has now come begging to the least likely to help out, the over extended U.S. taxpayer.

The relief rally of recent days is not something I can buy into, because the overhang of over-built homes and condos are still there.

If the mission is to take over all bad loans, then the message is...don't care too much about keeping your finances in order, you have a friend in the government who will support you no matter.

I will close this by explaining that the big run-up of property values was not warranted, and those who bought late are now holding the bag.

Property values should appreciate in line with all other tangible items, and bound by the rules of supply and demand.

Had they controlled the supply better, we might not be suffering today.

I think if they started giving Brits green cards again we could let them take over your unsold property rather than cram our little island with more and more, and the problem may be half way to being solved. We used to send thousands to Canada and Australia in the 40s-60s for a better life and the time has come we need another rebalancing before we explode.

My fear right now is that, based on what the government is about to do, we will see inflation go so high, that our money will be virtually worthless.

We apparently are managing to escape the total collapse of our economy, but at what cost to the taxpayer, and at what cost to our free market economy?

Chelseabelle, I can't look that far ahead to see the repercussion of inflation that the drastic measures taken this past week will create.

I wanted to explain that the euphoria in the stock market over the moves taken by the gov't is mostly about the many shorts that were taken on stocks that are now omitted from the action.

And, I am curious as to why not more people have joined in on your discussion. Is it so bad out there that they just gave up?

I made personal finance a top priority many years ago, and stuck by a plan.

Perhaps most people just live day to day, and can't get involved with finances.

Perhaps it's too complicated for average people to pursue.

I wish I knew.

There doesn't seem to be the response I would expect from your thread.

Well here I just buy less and do less.Less driving,less food shopping,no going out,cheaper gifts for birthdays,less for christmas.buying cheaper food helps too.That way I try and keep the same money I had and if I had my way I wouldn't trust a bank with my money but sadly it has to be paid into a bank and the bills come out from direct debit.

Relationship between USA and India today is such that if George Bush catches a cold, our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sneezes! The US crisis impact is mainly on the stock market. The stock market was one of the fastest growing, but since the sub-prime crisis, it has tanked from 22,000 to 12,000. All my investments have gone to the dogs (or bears to be precise )

Here's a well-written if irreverent look at the present state of affairs.

It's about the CEO's golden parachutes and the new Yankees' stadium, going back to Babe Ruth's exorbitant salary.

http://www.truthout.org/article/moguls-steal-home-while-companies-strike-out

Just a little more on the subject......

When I once worked for the largest bank in America, before its meteoric rise, there was a different system in place where many levels of mgt. had responsibility.

The greatest fear of a manager was a bad audit.

Once I heard the mgr. at a famous N.Y. location say..."If I get a bad audit, I'm taking a few seats of pants down with me".

Later, Reaganomics came in, and everything became centralized. After that, the advent of the P.C. placed all responsibility in one central area. Nobody made decisions anymore.

Then we had a great run, and everybody enjoyed the new la-la land mentality.

And now, it's time to sober up.

Amazing.

People are having a good old panic down here in Oz, as we're very much tied to the action in the US. At the moment it's a wobble, but what goes down must go up again...For the past few years our Reserve Bank has desperately been trying to put the brakes on the economy by gradually ramping up interest rates. This finally seems to be working

However, this is not good for me. I have a casual retail job...if people aren't spending, I'm not earning. When it's good, it's good, but I haven't had a shift for nearly a month. I think this is a combination of economic conditions and my employer seeing how low they can push staff levels before we all mutiny. (Not much further :P ) Thankfully I'm still living at home, but having zero income is certainly an experience. :S

At the moment, our government is at a stalemate in terms of trying to resolve the economic crisis. Both Democrats and Republicans are rejecting Bush's proposal as put forth by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Part of the problem is that Bush suffers from a loss of credibility, due to the misinformation that led to the Iraq invasion. Some remain skeptical that the crisis is as bad as Bush is saying. Another problem is that it gives the Secretary of the Treasury unprecedented power and control of about $700 billion with insufficient oversight into how the money is dispersed, and to whom it is given. Everyone under the sun is now lining up with their hand out for some bail-out money. And no one is sure the plan will work.

The Secretary of the Treasury will be out of his job in January when a new administration takes over, so that further complicates the situation.

So, my anxiety about the safety of my money market funds, the stability of my mutual funds, and the strength of my bank, continues. I thought they would have some kind of emergency plan in place by now. The more Congress talks about the plan, the more questions get raised, and the more things get stalled down.

I was about to make a lot of repairs and improvements to my home--which are quite costly--and I'm putting most of it on hold. I need to see what the immediate economic picture will be before I spend that much money.