What a World-wide Recession!

By now, everyone is fully aware that we’ve just hit the first recession
in a long while. For sure, since globalization took root; and that is the
only way this recession is also global.

Before everyone starts to assume that this editorial is anti-globalization, I would like to set the record straight. All indications are that the recession was primarily caused by lack of basic oversight of the financial markets. You add to that the exuberance in the US real estate market.

 No, it was more than exuberance.

When the real estate agent sold houses without wanting to know the buyer’s financial situation or capacity; or when the bank the buyer thought owned his/her mortgage actually didn’t because it package it into some mumbo jumbo investment instruments you and I can never understand and sold it to several other financial institutions all over God’s green earth, then you could call it greed and fraud. Plain and simple.

Now all you get is numerous job losses, frozen landing and shrinking economies with countries running some eye-popping deficits. And guess who are the first ones to most likely benefit from the financial bailout? Yes, the same people running financial institutions that got us into this mess in the first place.

What is anyone to do?

Well, all we can do is tighten our belts and ride it out until the current swings the other way. But this time, we’ll need to keep an eye on the financial institutions and be leery of agents that throw credit at us and tell us that our net worth is more than what we think it is. So, hang on tight.