A Great Depression.

Ah such an eventful week.


As if prelims was not depressing enough, while we were happily and ignorantly scribbling on our authentic VJC exam foolscrap (secretly hoping that we can save the world with the A on a piece of paper) with a special hole on the top left hand corner as a mark of quality , the world was already melting now.


First it was Northern Rock. Now, Lehman Brothers (just look at them. they SECRETLY knew that this was gonna happen. you can almost tell from that smile) have collapsed together with the surprise sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America for mere US$50 billion. Together with the bailout 2 of the largest mortgage giants Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), it seemed like nothing is impossible to fail now. And now American International Group (AIG) is also on the verge of bankruptcy should it fail to raise US$20 billion by wednesday.

Don't think you're not affected. (gasp! me?!) Yes you. Stop giving me that kind of stare.


You probably are one of the millions of people insured under AIA and yes that's a subsidiary of AIG. IGNORANT FOOLS YOU.

Bank runs. Imagine MEGA BANK RUNS. Imagine you, 65 years old, retiring this year with all your entire life savings gone overnight. 65 years of hard work mugging so hard for that 4As in VJC gone OVERNIGHT. It's a really terrible thing. All that borrowing to spend in US has finally gotten back to bite their backsides. And it's a really bad bite- imagine like a big slice of that flesh gone and it's getting infected with like yellowish pus oozing out. There's no way US can sit down now.

There's only a question of who's next- Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. It's good to keep up with what's happening, especially if you're an Economics student. Being an Economics student is not just all about calculating opportunity cost of reading up on current affairs vs studying for prelims. Cough.

And you probably wouldn't be stroking (or rubbing) your piggy bank if you know the gravity of the issues at hand now.


Okay thanks for reading. That post is to fulfill my dream of working at wall street as a private banker for rich people like Chen Corporation etc. Don't you think I seriously sound serious like a REAL investment banker working there?