What US Economic Recovery?

Struggling in a recovering economy

By Michelle Fleury
Business reporter, BBC News, New York

America slowly appears to be emerging from recession, rebounding from its worst slump in decades.

“ I’ve been out of work a few months here or there but never like this ”
Jon Polis

New figures to be released on Thursday are expected to show that the US economy grew between July and September.

But for many Americans the pain is still dragging on.

More than 200 years ago, Slater Mill in Rhode Island helped kick-off America’s industrial revolution.

For centuries, manufacturing, mainly in textile mills, provided jobs in this small north-eastern state, but not anymore.

Rhode Island now has the third highest unemployment rate in the country, after Michigan and Nevada. According to the US Labor Department, the rate of unemployment climbed to 13% in September.

This does not come as a surprise to Jon Polis.

Each day, he searches for work on his computer and in the local newspaper.

He says his eight years working for a medical supplies company was over in eight minutes. He was laid off a year-and-a-half ago. Now his benefits have run out and he is living on his savings.

“I can last maybe next March or April,” says Jon. “After that I’ll just have to go to my family and ask for money.”

At age 53, this is not the first recession he has lived through, but it is the worst.

“I’ve been out of work a few months here or there but never like this,” he says.

Back home

It is not just the more experienced members of the labour market who are being affected. The recession is also hitting the young, potentially creating a lost generation.

“ I’ll get kicked off my parents health insurance [in December]. Then I’m on my own ”
Colleen Riley

Recent graduate Colleen Riley starts most of her days eating breakfast with her parents. It is a ritual she would enjoy a lot more if she had not been forced to move back home after she could no longer afford her own apartment.

Since finishing university in May she has struggled to find full time employment. In August she took on a part time job, working 20 hours a week at a local communications firm.

But making ends meet is still a struggle. In three weeks time, she will have to make her first student loan repayment.

“I did go to the university of Rhode Island, which is a public institution,” Colleen says.

“With the help of my parents they did pay off a good amount, but I do have about $10,000 in loans.”

Her health insurance coverage, which ends in December, is another source of worry.

“I’ll get kicked off my parents health insurance,” Colleen says.

“Then I’m on my own – so that’s definitely my biggest concern.”

‘Job-ready’

With so many people out of work and for longer periods of time, the staff at Rhode Island’s Department of Labor & Training are rushed off their feet.

Their goal, according to senior manager Scott Greco, is to make sure people are in the best possible position for when companies start hiring again.

“Right now our object with the training is to get people job-ready,” he says.

But for Colleen and for Jon the economic recovery feels a long way off.

“I think a very key ingredient to an economy coming back is employment coming back,” says Jon.

“The last thing that is going to come back is employment.”

America’s economy may be improving, but with so many people still searching for work, a return to prosperity looks like a distant dream for many.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/8331110.stm

 

Obama’s stimulus plan props up big businesses without helping the workforce.

Musings on why I hate Hipsters and what they can do about it if they care

Musings on why I hate Hipsters and what they can do about it if they care

A friend wrote the following based on the recent New York Times article and related blogs dealing with the impact of the Great Recession on hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC:

I was going to make this a response to [my friend's] excellent update on the financial happenings of hipsters. But instead, I’ve decided to vent my spleen here. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to respond.

Hipsters……oh Hipsters…..how I hate thee! Let me list the ways:
A. Conformity. Every hipster seems to look the same. Crappy clothes (that aren’t actually crappy they just are styled that way), chuck taylor shoes, clove cigarettes, etc. etc. I believe they called it Derelicte in Zoolander—homeless chic.
B. Cheapening anything of value. They search for the authentic and then when they think they’ve found the authentic they cheapen it by making it into a style that they desire to globalize. This is not unlike their wealthy Daddies with their Italian fashions and imported cars. Or their unemployed mommies trying to save some piece of the rainforest, doing yoga, and having the Dali Lama on their shelf.
C. An insult to the working class. Their drink is Pabst Blue Ribbon, yet so many of their parents and admitted futures are with management or “designer wall paper”—whatever the fuck that is. You ask them to work an 8 hour day and they leave in a huff. “I am too good for the 8 hour day.” Good enough to drink the working man’s beer but not good enough to do the workings man job. Scuttle off “puss-cakes,” as Clint Eastwood would say.
D. Handlebar moustaches. Shave that shit off. This isn’t the 1890s.
E. “Avant garde” bullshit sessions at the local coffee house don’t make you an intellectual. I am not saying you need to go to college to be smart, though it does help. Reading and *thinking* about what you just read is far more enlightening than sitting around a hookah talking about what you’ve read without actually understanding its meaning. Reading widely and making intelligent, thoughtful conversation beats any new fix you can make on Noam Chomsky. All the fixes have been made kid.
F. Arrogance. Just because you’re from NYC or Brooklyn doesn’t make you special. I’ve been around both for quite a time. And, considering the experiences of my own travel, they aren’t special. You think NYC is the world? Dip yourself into Hong Kong. You’ll feel like the bumpkins you make fun of except you’ll lack their tact, grace, or taste.
G. G stands for Get a fucking job! Deliver pizzas, wait tables, work as a mechanic, do something with your life other than live off of mommy and daddy’s wallet. Part of the reason you have no self-respect and must act arrogant and fake is because you’ve never worked a day in your life. Work! Even if it doesn’t cover the bills entirely. You might actually learn something about people beyond your tight little cohort.

How to Stop Being a Hipster and Get Real:
1. Shave and start taking care of yourself. Look the part of a decent, normal human being. Stop trying to be an artist if you’re not one. The Bohemian life is for people of true talent. If you’re a hipster you probably don’t have any.
2. Stop trying to make statements. Be your own person. Don’t be derelicte unless you think there is some value to it, which I think if you asked a real homeless person they’d say, “Shiiiit If I had the money you had I’d buy myself a nice coat and some nice clothes. I wouldn’t dress like this.”
3. If you feel guilty about your money, stop. You want to help laboring folk out? Ask your Daddy if there is another way that he could save those 20 jobs he has to cut. Don’t drink PBR and think, “I am so pro-Union.”
4. Contribute something to society.
5. Spend time with books and old people. Both will fill you with more wisdom than all the late night jam sessions at Hal’s coffee shop you can have in one lifetime.
6. Learn to enjoy the simple things in life. But don’t overdo it.
7. Have an interior life. That’s where those simple joys should go.

Finally, get the fuck off my lawn.

“Culture shock: If you don’t learn to bridge the gap, you may risk alienating potential business partners – Real Deal”

“Culture shock: If you don’t learn to bridge the gap, you may risk alienating potential business partners – Real Deal”

According to a July, 2003 article in Entrepreneur, “Culture shock: If you don’t learn to bridge the gap, you may risk alienating potential business partners – Real Deal,” negotiations are gaining increasing importance as the international, multinational and transnational business play a greater role in international business. This article describes the different cultural customs in each nationality and provides tips on how to improve negotiations.

The article describes the different cultures of Asians, Europeans, Africans, Hispanics and even Americans and their role in negotiations. Some examples given are that Japanese dislike direct confrontations, Koreans prefer teamwork, Nigerians prefer spoken negotiations, Indians prefer written agreements, while Hispanics heavily use body language to express themselves. Additionally, the article points out that Asian languages incorporate tones and body language while Spanish people are extremely individualistic. Compared to other cultures, it appears that Americans offend others with their impulsiveness and their need to quickly complete tasks.

Based on these cultural differences and their impact on business customs, negotiators are recommended to make an effort to learn about their partner’s culture to gain a position of advantage. This is especially true because many of these foreign negotiators do not speak English as their native language, which leads to native expressions getting lost in translation, so it is important that both sides attempt to build a mutual understanding to make negotiations work smoothly. Additionally, I agree with the suggestion of hiring a cultural consultant or translators to better understand foreign cultures because it would cut down time needed to research the many cultural nuances and it will give greater insights on how certain foreign negotiators operate.

Therefore, it is essential to better understand foreign customs since they can lead to successful negotiations. Because each culture and nationality have different approaches to negotiating, one must properly research their business customs to prevent misunderstandings and improve the ability to get demands met. As businesses become more globalized, it appears that so-called cultural consultants and translators are becoming more relevant in assisting businesses in international negotiations and have also forced negotiators to learn new ways of negotiating.

· Japanese – prefer information exchange over direct confrontation
· Russians – prefer direct confrontation, “compromise” is a loanword
· Spanish – extremely individualistic
· Koreans – prefer negotiating in a group setting
· Nigerians – prefer spoken word
· Indians – prefer written word
· Asian languages – high in context, should focus on inflections, body language
· Latin Americans – physically demonstrative
· Americans – impatient and obsessed with finishing tasks quickly

What a day

Today was a rather bad day that started on the wrong foot. My train was delayed by almost an hour because an Amtrak train had broken down in the stop before mine causing several cancellations and a 1 hour commute becoming a two hour nightmare. By the time I got to work, too many deliverables were piling up and it was overwhelming. This is what happens when a country has no money to fund their public mass transit networks. In Taiwan, the company would actually issue every customer a full refund if they caused any delays while in America all the passengers get is an insincere apology and no assurance that the problem will not happen again.

Around lunchtime, I heard that several of my co-workers were abruptly laid off and asked to leave the building on the same day. I really didn’t think they would be made redundant seeing that they have a strong relationship with the client and the client is strongly dependent on them to get things done. In addition, they also had intimate knowledge of custom technical specifications, solutions and worked overtime with no pay on several occasions. It was really unpleasant because there was also talk of a 5% pay cut to avoid layoffs. It looks like we are getting either a pay cut or a lay off.

At the end of the day I learned more people were being let go along with a inpromptu meeting to discuss these developments. These events really left me in a bad mood for the rest of the day and I decided to leave early even though I got to work almost an hour late no thanks to Amtrak. I need to get a drink at the moment.

A Craigslist rant against the Wall St. Banksters

You reap what you sow: the greed of an archetypal Lehman douche
Date: 2008-09-16, 5:57PM EDT

Most of you deserve this, you really, truly do. You chose this road because it was easy and because you’re stupid. This was and is the best you’ll ever do. You know who I’m talking about. I’m pointing the finger at you, you and you. And especially you. To all the overtanned Jersey douchebags with steroid addictions, to the smug Ivy League grads with dads in high places, to the good looking brain dead women that eschew Anne Taylor Loft for sales rack Brooks Brothers, and to the upwardly mobile black girls with fake hair and inappropriate-for-work Joyce Leslie outfits. Actually, scratch that. The black girls can stay.

Fuck all of you. You brought this upon yourselves. Your Alpha male bullshit begat this greed, your vile existence is truly at the core of this collapse. For all the times you and your drunk cronies threw up on the street outside Pacha, for all the times you made a scene on the 3:51 LIRR train to Babylon, for all the times you stood on the Path train, or the 6, iPod in hand, desperately trying not to touch anyone. You had it coming.

Is there some kind of code that says you MUST wear a blue shirt? Or is that some kind of unspoken bro ethos? Like, if you’re the dude in the white button down in Bryant Park, is no one gonna blow you? Or is conforming just that much easier, is conformity just a part of your DNA? Is that really the true reason why you’re so universally loathsome to anyone that’s not a part of that vile world?

Before the Bubble O’ Bullshit burst, you would laugh at me. You were the douche bags that felt superior, the ones who turned up their nose at their working-class roots, the ones who scoffed at their peers who worked at the Local Union. You were the ones who laughed at those that worked at non-profits and LIKED IT. “Art History? What are you going to do with a major in Art History?” Yeah, your finance major got you real fucking far. Maybe after this ship sails you’ll realize that aside from your rape trial, college didn’t teach you much of anything. Sorry bro, but in the real world, you can’t walk down the street, lacrosse stick in hand, and just get respect.

I hope that with this smashup comes your own social foreclosure. I hope all those dudes from my high school — you know who I’m talking about — the ones that never got good grades, the ones that never knew how to act like decent human beings, the date rapists, the juicers, the guidos, the Quinnipiac or Iona grads that never should have graduated yet somehow landed cushy Wall Street jobs — receive the guerdon from the gods . I hope you’re evicted from your Upper East Side apartment, I hope your Denali gets repoed, I hope you can’t afford your bullshit Murray Hill lifestyle. I hope you truly get your comeuppance. Because it’s well fucking deserved and the Universe knows it. And what about me, you ask?

I’m laughing all the way to the nonexistent bank.

* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 843443153

The word bankster was once a depression-era term referring to a predatory element within the financial services industry, such as those offering “too good to be true” adjustable mortgage rates for home buyers, getting undeserved bonuses, creating complex financial instruments that hold no real value or commit large-scale fraud.

I post that craigslist entry because it’s just too funny and almost reminds me of my days at the Rutgers Business School undergraduate programme. Unlike other undergrad business programmes, the Rutgers Business School crams about 4 years worth of business schooling into 2 years to mirror the MBA programme.

The thing about the business school was that a good number of our finance majors were in fact cheaters. Some of them would store finance equations on their graphing calculators, some would find the means to purchase a teacher’s edition of their textbooks along with the exam guides, while a few would try to set their classmates up for for failure to weed out the competition.  Those who tried to speak out were silenced and professors who tried to investigate allegations of cheating go nowhere because these kids destroyed the evidence.

It’s funny that many of these finance majors would eventually land cushy jobs as investment bankers, analysts, managers or financial advisers simply by lying, charming and cheating their way to success.

Here’s something a former Rutgers Business School student wrote about his classmates:

There was something I remembered the first day of business school when I was getting to know my classmates. It was before class and we introduced ourselves; but he stopped talking to me once he found out my GPA was a 3.47. This fucker even went the extra mile by telling some of my friends in the b-school behind my back that we was “mad stupid” and “not a good guy”. I mean, seriously, what the fuck is this shit? What is even worse is that this prick leeches off other people’s work and takes credit for it. I know that cutthroat punks exist in general, and I am under the impression that they all go to the business school.

Not only are there cutthroat leeches, there are also ass-kissers. Some of these people may have been doing it all their lives and feel there is nothing wrong with it. They think that ass-kissing will payoff and bring them great things. In the business school, they might suck up to the professor to get exempt from an exam or a job recommendation, or they may suck-up to fellow students to get votes to become a club officer or to use them. In short, in the business school, your peers will lie, cheat, and steal in the name of good grades and contacts while repeatedly fucking you over in the process. It will become extremely difficult to have friends you can actually trust if you choose to go to the business school.

In some way I can relate to what the guy on craigslist was talking about.  Many of these RBS alumni did not really deserve the high-flying jobs they secured and many of them had bad habits that would naturally cause massive damage in Wall St. and the rest of the global economy.  What these banksters did was scam the vast majority of the population to overconsume and avoid saving while depending on low interest rates to fuel their debt-based spending.  In the end, these clowns were not only able to convince businesses to start giving out huge loans to dangerously unqualified individuals and then spread all the risk out to others so they would never suffer the consequences, they also managed to dupe everyone into believing the hype that all these “good times last forever”.

So kudos to some of my RBS alums for cheating and charming their way to the top with almost no substance or moral fiber.  Kudos to those whose undeserved success is crumbling around them as the world responds to their excesses.  And most of all, kudos for being brought down to reality, where people actually go about their lives producing something of value and save to create wealth with dignity and through their own merits.  All you business school cheats turned banksters have earned the right to be ruined by the financial crisis.

Another Night

Tonight is a rather smooth and calm night. I am just here relaxed drinking a glass of red wine that I got as a holiday gift from the client while my direct manager was cool enough to get me a bottle of sochu. It was really nice of them to have Xmas gifts and I do feel bad that I did not prepare individual gifts for them although I did contribute to the secret santa games at the office.

I would like to say that things are overall good at the moment. There are some things I want to mention but won’t for the sake of personal privacy. The NJTransit trains are still garbage as usual because today the trains suffered a 30-45 minute delay on the way back despite making it on time to the rush hour train. As a result I didn’t get home until around 7.

I really think I need to relax and just unwind. I honesty believe that becoming more focused and goal-oriented after the nonsense in 2007 and to change for the better was a good decision, but it’s time for me to start lightening up now that most of those career needs seem to be going in the right direction, and the social concerns are in a way becoming less of an issue like in the past. It was also helpful to get some long-standing questions from the past answered since it brought a sense of closure and relief.

Some current wishes at the moment are for more quality time with people I care about and whose company I enjoy, finding a way to shorten my work commute, and making more time for exercise and personal learning. This can be a challenge with the brutal commute and the challenge in self-motivation.

Some current gripes are some friends who seem to be afraid of New York City, the ongoing bailouts by the Bush administration, the long wait before President Obama takes over, and the rotting American economy. Most of these things are beyond my control while some are just downright silly.

Ben Bernanke is an economic terrorist and he should be sent to Guantanamo Bay for being stupid enough to unknowingly recreate the conditions that led to Japan’s decade-long recession and ongoing social decay. Didn’t this PhD and Princeton Professor learn anything about the failure of zero-interest rate policy in Japan.

I found out my gf was a victim of an ATM robbery. She is unharmed and is with the police at this time reporting the robbery. I just can’t believe something could happen at this time. It’s like these things keep becoming common as the economy and quality of life gets worse.

Tomorrow is a Banking Holiday

That means I am just working at home on some projects.  It should be great since I get to sleep later and not worry about the 1.5 hour commute to NYC.  The euphoria of President Obama is winding down as the victory sinks in.

On one hand, there is a part of me that wishes Obama can use his magic touch to talk Bernanke into resigning and go back to teaching at Princeton.  On the flipside, I suspect Obama may try to implement a New Deal 2.0 to prop up the American-created global financial crisis so that it doesn’t become the Great Depression 2.0.

The New Deal was initially supported by people such as Ronald Reagan because it had an emphasis on workfare.  It put people to work in paving roads, building bridges, and improving existing infrastructure that added value to the country and set the stage for creating greater freedom of movement in people, goods and services.  However, the New Deal increased the national debt, it was mismanaged in some cases, and its benefits took far too long to outweigh the immediate cost.  Its redeeming factor were in infrastructure improvements, paying people for large scale government works, and reigniting debate on the role of government.

I talk about this because Obama has brought up the idea of compulsory service in the form of serving in the military or doing work in the community for people between the ages of 18 to 25.  This in theory would allow the state to utilise a young and inexperienced pool of talent to work on government-sponsored projects or fight on their behalf while helping them gain experience and eventually figure out whether they want the state in their lives or not.

President Obama also has been unfairly compared to Jimmy Carter because he appears to be frank and intelligent.  For some reason, intelligence is a virtue that is frowned upon in America, especially since the time Bush took power in 2000, with anti-intellectualism being looked upon as a real American value.  Moreover, intelligence seems to be perceived as a primarily European virtue, which makes it foreign and therefore un-American.  That being said, it should be no surprise that the Republicans, now dominated by factions with an anti-intellectual (ignorant) mindset, have chosen Sarah Palin to represent them and to be a heartbeat away from becoming President.

more about “Sarah Palin Is So Dumb… | The Daily…“, posted with vodpod

-Sarah Palin is so dumb she thought Soy Milk is Spanish for “I am Milk”
-She is so dumb she thought Lincoln’s vice president was named Town Car
-Palin is so stupid she thought the capital of China is Chinatown

A clip of a Sarah Palin porn parody read by Thandie Newton and Ricky Gervais

I am just glad Obama won or stupidity would have been America’s downfall.  Tomorrow is Rememberance Day

Changes in America and Craziness at old company

The euphoria is winding down as the painful recession rears its ugly head again. The markets went down the day after Obama’s victory in response to a democrat taking office and the rest of the week was just mixed panic. There is fear that Obama will end up like a Jimmy Carter 2.0 or start developing socialist tendencies as President. Then there are those who pray that he remains on the centre-left since most of the swing votes came from pro-Obama conservatives.

That being said, it is nice to know that the Obama administration is taking some steps to remain open to the people with the change.gov website that is there as a public relations tool and as a means to inform the public of the transition process.

South Park did a parody of the election by presenting Obama and McCain as thieves working together to steal the Hope Diamond using underground tunnels in the White House. It was mainly a parody of Ocean’s 11, and also presented all the wild partying after Obama won the election.

The economy is pretty bad over here. I learned from my former co-worker that several people were laid off at my old job and the company culture has gotten worse. The only good news is that the incompetent CMO, who thought it was a great idea to make the sales team into account managers and then dumping all the lower tier accounts on the existing account management team, got fired in that batch of layoffs.

The CMO was disconnected from the changes in the industry, he was relatively unpopular at the office, and he had a bad habit of wanting things without understanding the situation. As a result of his organisational shakeup, the account managers were spending more time propping up lesser accounts and making less commissions while the sales team was wasting time doing work they are not trained for and constantly lacking time to acquire new accounts.

The internal slogan he kept using in almost every internal memo was “We’ll grow revenue – Together!”

It was an incredibly stupid slogan and almost sounds insulting in light of the realities in the office. This guy was even dumb enough to take advice from someone who was only in the company for less than 8 months and a major brown-noser. Office politics can be fun and I am glad they got rid of him.

Keep in mind this is about my first job out of college and not about my present situation.

There were some other signs the company was going under:

1. Frequent company status meetings. In one call the then-CEO announced he was putting the company up for sale. There were some interested buyers but in the end no one wanted to acquire the company.
2. Turnover. Several founding employees left the company in pursuit of better opportunities. Oddly enough, some interesting developments happened not long after they left. There were 3 CEOs during my time there.
3. Erratic product launches or projects. Several products would be abruptly launched with mixed results or they would be hastily discontinued to focus on the “core business”. Some projects often resulted in the company working in areas they are not suited for.
4. Constant organisational changes. One day I find myself part of the account management team, one day in product development, and another in sales. Internal instability is a huge problem.
5. The company stock loosing 90% of its value since its IPO was issued in 2004. This speaks for itself.
6. High-level office politics. One executive was sacked about 3 days before the company holiday party and the person who influenced the CEO was promoted to COO. A few months later the COO was sacked for having a power struggle with the CMO, who was considered the number 2 guy by the CEO.
7. No holiday party speech. Usually during the holiday party, the executive management or the CEO delivers a speech to boost company morale or to set the tone for the coming fiscal year. We had no such speech the year before I left.
8. Constructive discharge. My then-manager acted in a manner to get me to quit so they would not have to give me severance if I was terminated. I was unilaterally transferred to another department without my knowledge or inputl; everything I did was somehow held against me and I gradually had my responsibilities taken from me without real explanation.
9. Little or no profits. The company was loosing money every quarter or barely made enough profit to be reflected in the stock value.
10. Culture change. What was once a pleasant office to work for in good times and bad suddenly becomes a quiet, sterile and paranoid environment where people feel unappreciated or expendable.

I honestly can’t believe this company has gotten into this situation in the 1.5 years I was there and in the months since I switched careers. I hope the people who got laid off will find a better job and those who chose to remain will make a career change.

Introspective musicology: the soundtrack to our lives.

introspective musicology: the soundtrack to our lives. we all have them, some strange mixture of karaoke classics, queen-level ballads, heart thumping hip hop and head banging metal. the purpose of IM is exploring how one relates to these soundtracks, how an artist can understand another, not through interaction, but through those tracks that the individual feels is significant to their lives. it is an examination to symbolic meaning, as well as how individual pieces can create a collective whole.

Here are some that are the current soundtrack of my life (in no particular order) for a friend’s art project.  It has its ups and downs along with its moments:

1. Depeche Mode – Never Let Me Down Again -

2. Joy Division – Atmosphere -

3. New Order – True Faith -

4. The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever -

5. The Beatles – Getting Better -

6. Faithless – God Is A DJ -

7. Angel y Khriz – Ven Bailalo -

8. Starsailor – Love is Here -

9. Madonna – I Want You (Feat. Massive Attack) -

10. The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness -

11. Robbie Williams – Rock DJ -

12. David Bowie – I’m Afraid Of Americans -

13. U2 – With Or Without You -

14. Sex Pistols – Anarchy In The U.K -

15. The Chemical Brothers – Galvanize -

The Dow goes down to 8,500 while the S&P drops below 1,000

This is how many people felt today as things got crazier in the financial markets:

Here is a Mad Lib for this crisis:

It’s safe to say today was insane and there really is nothing to be done other than shorting or taking the situation in stride.  Iceland has bitten the bullet, the IMF is going all-out to reduce the crisis, while Asia is going downhill as I write this.

America has brought the world to a dangerous new era with their unregulated derivatives trade, subprime housing bubble, and their failing War of Terror.  We all need to be aware that this Bush Administration was the one who appointed Paulson, Cox and Bernanke into power.  They also were the ones to force merges and acquisitions of various financial institutions

Asian markets have opened heavily down in the wake of a plunge by US stocks to their lowest level for five years.

Tokyo’s Nikkei-225 index has dropped 11.3%, while South Korea, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong all crashed 7% in early trading.

Despite concerted government action, investors are fearful the financial crisis will prompt a global recession.

Finance minister from the G7 leading industrial countries are set to meet in Washington to discuss the crisis.

US President George W Bush is due to make an address to the American people later in the day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7662572.stm

Iceland is a sign of things to come