A Mark In Time
General Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Waterline Man on January 12, 2009, 05:02:28 PM
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I was just wondering how the global recession is effecting different parts of the world?I'm in Ireland & its the worst that I have ever come accross,every day is a bad one & its not getting any better. Companies are closing down daily & staff are being left go or being put on short time everywhere you look.We had the influx of a lot of non-nationals here for the past 10 years & they are now going back home in their thousands as its better at home than here at the moment. I'm told its as bad if not worse in the UK,the euro & sterling are nearly on a par at the moment which is never a good sign & the us dollar has been weak against the euro for the past year!Will the arrival of a new president in the US or the arrival of the Olympic flame in London be our saviours or will they make any difference at all??
The way things are going we will need to save up for the upcoming cd release not to mind the tour in 2010 :'( :'(
Sorry to be a bit negative but I am interested to find out if its as bad everywhere else from people on the ground & people that I know will give me an honest answer.
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I think the sheer number of "for sale" signs seen when you drive through any housing development around here says a lot. This of course is mainly caused by the subprime mortgage crisis which has severely depreciated the value of homes around where I live. Actually, the current economic recession is not surprising. This happens every few years and it seems to be part of the economic cycle. The problem is that the massive credit crisis here has made the situation much worse off then it could have been.
You mentioned the value of the dollar compared to the Euro. I'm probably in the minority, but I'm quite content with the dollar being weaker than the Euro. It calls for an increase in demand for American goods and increases our exports- which is exactly what we need. The Chinese have purposely undervalued their currency for years for this same purpose. I think the EU will seriously cut interest rates this year to compensate.
Anyway, as for me personally, no I haven't really been affected. But that could change at any time. The retail company I used to work for (toy store) filed for bankruptcy a second time and went into immediate liquidation. It's sad to see it go really, and I feel bad for a lot of the people that I was friends with that still worked there, and will shortly be out of a job.
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germany where i live has also been hit hard by the recession, but in my line of work all is still fine, lucky me.
think this will be one damn though year.
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In Holland especially the bigger companies have problems. That's the way it goes, first the bigger ones and the small companies will follow. I think it's sad it goes this way, but I am happy it happened. Trees don't grow to heaven, there's a limit! And I really hope people learn from this recession that you can earn a good living by working hard, but that speculating leads to crazy things, see what happened now. (And just some years ago the internet-bubble).
There is no excuse to give loans to people who have no income and no job! You know they can't pay back so you don't give a loan at all. You don't help people to give them a new creditcard which they use to pay off their other creditcard. It's asking for problems.
Till now I am not affected. And only some of my clients (I am accountant) see a fall of their sales. I hope people keep positive. Most of the people are NOT affected, sure it's sad for the ones who lost their jobs but thinking macro it's only a small percentage of the whole population.
So I hope for the ones who had the bad luck of losing their jobs that they will find a new job fast.
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I am from Croatia, and we are always in recession. :P ;D
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I don't know, I don't follow the news, too depressing....
but for my company and its customers, it's business as usual (even if we do a lot of business in the UK&IE)
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I was talking to a friend today who is a breast surgeon. I was asking him about the effects of the recession on his business. No problemo he said! Ladies still flocking to his door to have them made bigger or smaller. I thought this information may be of some comfort.
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Now for real, the recession hited us real good. Being potential newcomers in EU ( 2011), economy in Croatia is fragile. In my business ( service department & distribution of drinks ) it
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LEPI, We have plans to come to Croatia this summer for our holiday. We first need to do some thorough investigation of the best places to stay! :)
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I was talking to a friend today who is a breast surgeon. I was asking him about the effects of the recession on his business. No problemo he said! Ladies still flocking to his door to have them made bigger or smaller. I thought this information may be of some comfort.
It feels great! Thanks for the info!
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LEPI, We have plans to come to Croatia this summer for our holiday. We first need to do some thorough investigation of the best places to stay! :)
Try Opatia, Split, Zadar ( my home city ) or maybe Dubrovnik. Dire Straits had their one week vacation in Dubrovnik in 1984. and had a great time.
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Many thanks, LEPI for the info!
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Rural northeastern California is hit very hard. We have no big corporations to get bailout funds to boost our local economy. Some small retail businesses have closed. Real estate sales have dropped nearly to zero. And some have lost their homes. Some people have been laid off, but that doesn't happen too much here, as there already is minimal employment. Oddly, restaurant prices have gone up, and people still continue to eat out. My husband's business is suffering, but fortunately for us, I have a steady paycheck. I find myself giving more to local food charities and such. And I maintain my donations to animal charities, for in this kind of economy, animals are often the first to suffer.
For example, our governor has suggested putting a tax on all veterinary services. People who already can barely afford veterinary care will forgoe it, and the animals will suffer. When ranchers buy veterinary medicine for their cattle on vaccination day, the bill ranges from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size of the herd. This additional tax will oppress the already thin financial health of the agriculture industry.
State and local governments are hurting as much as big business (who continue to spend irresponsibility) and so they enact desperate measures such as the veterinary tax. Of course, all this further depresses the incomes of people in high poverty areas. Fortunately for all of us, we have a new President with a great new vision. Perhaps with his influence, the leaders of the world will pull togethe to solve this global crisis.
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I agree with some of the things Ingrid said. She lives in the Southern part of my country and I in the North, there is a little difference and that is that we don
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I agree with you Fieneke. I know that the north and of course the south-east (Limburg) have more problems than the southern and western part of Holland. But ... you have the luck that your houses are cheaper :P
Just joking ;) I know that income in these parts is lower as well, so not really a big difference.
And what you say is right as well. I am also grown up with first save money, then spend it. It's the Calvinistic part of our culture I think.