Financial Crisis!!!

"The United States is mired in a "once-in-a century" financial crisis which is now more than likely to spark a recession"
-- former Federal Reserve chief, Alan Greenspan --

Sigh...... "Financial Crisis" - these 2 words had not rang a bell for a long time! But the bad news is: it is back to haunt our lives again. It all started off with the Sub Prime crisis in U.S. Followed by the 2 biggest U.S. providers of housing finance: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae getting themselves in deep shit... Thank god that the U.S. government had decided to bail them out. But the issue is still by far being resolved and it will continue to be corrosive force until the prices of homes in U.S. stabilised.

Hmmm... and September.. think it is the "Jinx" month for United States.
September 11 incident in 2001 brought the world's financial market to a standstill; a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda where four commercial passenger jet airliners were hijacked and used to intentionally crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building, causing both buildings to collapse within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. Stock exchanges closed for almost a week, and posted enormous losses upon reopening, especially in the airline and insurance industries.

"Names of the Past!"

Now!! September 15 2008 would be noted down as another major event that shocked the world's financial system -- Declaration of Bankruptcy by Lehmann Brothers and their wall street rival, Merill Lynch having to be taken over by Bank of America...

All this events seemed to be highly contagious, as even before the stock market was able to digest the demise of Lehman Brothers and the take-over of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, Insurance giant AIG reported to be seeking a 40 billion-dollar bridge loan from the Federal Reserve in the face of a possible downgrade from credit ratings agencies on the same day. Shares in American International Group slid 70 percent at the open amid heightened fears of bankruptcy at what was once the world's largest insurance company.

Even AIA - the subsidiary of AIG was not spared.. the next day before the Customer Service Centre was open, there was already a long queue of policyholders lining up wanting to surrender their policies. Everyone just started to panic and I feel it is normal, especially for the uncles and aunties who had out their life savings in the insurance plans and they are bound to be afraid that the bankruptcy will become a chain effect....

Wonder when will all this come to an end... or is it the beginning of another vicious cycle.