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Life Talk!

Economy collapses. What happens where you live?

02:20 PM Sep 11 2008 | Reply

worldmikel

worldmikel

United States

In the past few months, the USA has seen many banks close. Most people in the USA don't own their own homes. They buy them with mortgages that they get from banks. Banks lent more money than what people could pay back. Now banks have taken back millions of homes and thrown people out on the streets. The US Treasury and Federal Reserve has just bailed out two of the major lenders by guaranteeing the stock of these companies with more money than the US government really has. This is part of a worldwide Economic crisis that could see every major country in Depression. The US and the world had a major Economic Depression in the late 20's and all of the 1930's. It was a terrible situation. The US and other countries have advanced in so many ways since then. Lifestyles have changed and grown. When the next Depression hits, most people that lived through the previous one won't be alive to tell about what it will be like. 

My question here is: When this Depression hits first in the USA and then around the world, what kinds of things happen where you live? How does life change? What things will you have to give up because you cannot afford them? Will there be more crime and illness where you live? 

Nobody know for sure how bad it will get, but you can imagine and describe different scenes using the questions I've asked as a basis for your story. I will do the same, so you can see what I mean. It is a good thing to think about. Don't you think so?

06:54 AM Sep 15 2008 | Reply

progression

Turkey

Burcu it's so clear… Capitalists would prefer to invest where costs are as low as possible. And countries begging for the US dollar and FDI pledges to establish a "investment-friendly" environment. Which means no social security deductions, no regulation or law that prevents capitalists to exploit workers as they want, no restriction upon land property etc etc… You'll get what I mean when you finish your school :)

07:12 AM Sep 15 2008 | Reply

burcu_ua

burcu_ua

Turkey

so thanks for explanation..i don't have enough knowledge about these..so i asked..i am sure it is very accurate but not for me..i have never heard about the term you used..again thanks..

12:06 PM Sep 15 2008 | Reply

worldmikel

worldmikel

United States

A good place to watch the world tumble is from this Yahoo page:

http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=europe

Click around and you can watch the US Markets as well as all of them around the world. 

What a day! It is like watching the biggest train wreck ever.

02:26 PM Sep 15 2008 | Reply

hakimi

hakimi

Yemen

In newsday i have heard about bankrupt one of big bank in the USA. so i remmbered this article which i read it about one month ago

 

Ki Gray

Possible Countrywide Bankruptcy Developments: Bank of America to Invest 2 Billion dollars

Lets start off with a little back story. Countrywide spent the real estate boom times growing to be the largest mortgage company in the United States. They had very lax restrictions on who they gave loans to. Consequently now that people are worried about homeowners not paying their loans, investors have been focusing on Countrywide. A lot of investors on Wall Street have been selling Countrywide short assuming a looming bankruptcy.

The problem is a Countrywide bankruptcy could have an extremely negative affect on the financial markets not to mention weakening the national real estate market. Having the largest mortgage company go bankrupt could lead to a massive lose of investor confidence and a run on other banks not affected by Countrywide's problems. People already started pulling money from Countrywide over the last week.

So apparently I am not the only person worried about a Countrywide Bankruptcy. Bank of America made an equity investment of 2 billion dollars after the close of the stock market. It looks like for now this should go a long way to keeping Countrywide out of Bankruptcy. The 2 Billion investment comes in the form of nonvoting stock. In after hours trading Countrywide shares have increased by 20%

Why Bank of America is investing in Countrywide is anyones guess. But Bank of America might not be interested in the turmoil a Countrywide bankruptcy might bring to the financial market. And at least for now the investment will problem calm the waters. Countrywide stock which reached a high of 45 this year hit a low of 15 in the last few weeks. After the BOA announcement Countywide rose to 26 dollar a share.

03:00 PM Sep 15 2008 | Reply

hakimi

hakimi

Yemen

Top US investment bank Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy protection, sending shockwaves through financial markets.

03:28 PM Sep 15 2008 | Reply

L.PARK_EVA

L.PARK_EVA

Turkey

if the opinions dont change( about  alot of subject as human rights, animal rights,stupid ideas of  capitalizm ,change of murderer  lider and free ideas and ı wont count more than subjects) , the world will be house that only  the murderer  live in , so the economy is collepse ..left economy fırst the human will killed … no human  no things ….

  a murderer who  live a place died a opinion, a human , a animal and  by and by person will died to its life  .. the opinion will died other opinion (serious prob.) and

 how do you live that life ?

ı think my country dont have a economy… you will be said why ? you have to live here to understand it is quite confused…my country  have many nation and they cant love theirself becoz their opinion killed theirself  in fact they dont have a free OPİNİON     

   ı treid to write well ,fluently …if ı have mistake i willsorry to all of you …......

HURRAY FREE OPİNİON  

03:54 AM Sep 16 2008 | Reply

worldmikel

worldmikel

United States

hakimi,

Notice the date on that article is from 2007? The biggest problems with the Economy probably started right after 9/11. That is when the US government started printing money like crazy and handing it out to banks in Europe, businesses and programs around the US and the world. People didn't realize that the money they held didn't represent anything real. At the same time, banks in the US were giving out loans with this fake money to home buyers that could never pay it back. These mortgages – the bad loans – were sold in groups to other banks that held them and took investments against them from foreign countries like China and Japan. Now that it is realized that there was no real money in the first place and now these loans represent no value, the investors – like China and Japan – are holding paper loan contracts that are worthless, if the US government doesn't do something to make it appear that this money will be worth something in the future. It is all like a magic trick; slight of hand. It is real if you choose to believe it is real.

China and Japan need to pretend this is real. If they decide that US money is worthless and decide not to accept it anymore, the US can't buy stuff that these countries manufacture. If they can't sell their stuff, these countries have a LOT of unemployed and unhappy people. Beijing in particular could not handle millions of angry people marching to Beijing to overthrow their government because they don't have enough money for food. This is like a delicate chess game that everyone wants to keep playing and not find out how it ends. When it ends, no matter who "wins", all players really lose.

The story in the News today is that the US government just printed up $70-billion dollars of money and are giving it out. This is bigger than the amount they printed out the week of 9/11. That was a bad time in US history. You know that this time is much worse.

05:50 AM Sep 16 2008 | Reply

tiffintime

tiffintime

Sri Lanka

Fact is stranger than fiction.

Lehman's CEO Fuld got a bonus payment of 22 million dollars for "excellent" performance in the year 2007. With that kind of money in his own bank account, he's probably having the last laugh.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1341059120080914

 

04:53 PM Sep 16 2008 | Reply

worldmikel

worldmikel

United States

See? That was part of the trick of these banks. They claimed assets at inflated values that they colluded to inflate. In this good ol' boy network, they patted each other on the backs and told themselves these phony money schemes would keep appearing as earnings and profits. So, unregulated and with no oversight, if they told each other they were profitable, then they were profitable. After all, they agreed.

 

The nice thing is that once everything collapses, either his money will be worthless, or if he remains rich, he'll be a target of the poor that he's fleeced. As rich people in places like Brazil know, it is tough to enjoy being rich with so many poor surrounding you. You have a target on your back at all times.

02:39 PM Sep 17 2008 | Reply

hakimi

hakimi

Yemen

The story in the News today is that the US government just printed up $70-billion dollars of money and are giving it out. This is bigger than the amount they printed out the week of 9/11. That was a bad time in US history. You know that this time is much worse.

I think when any government printd up money to give out it in such situation  it will lead to financial inflation