DianaTan.net

There is a myth that says that at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold. Well, I have yet to see that pot of gold whenever I spot a colorful rainbow after the thunderstorm. But I do have my small tiny collection of gold - from gold coins, gold bangle, gold cross, gold earrings to gold chain. These are gifts from my two departed grannies except for the gold coin which was given by my aunt and the gold bangle was a gift to myself for working hard in giving tuition. I hardly wear gold for fear of snatch theft and for my own safety. I have had my mom, my second sister and paternal granny being victims of snatch thefts of their gold chains and handbag right in front of my house. Despite owning some gold items, I don’t normally wear them as they would be too ostentacious and I rather keep a low profile whenever I am in public places.

The inconvenient truth in financial markets today is that the US is already in recession. The turmoil in the credit and housing markets is prominent. Compounding this is the fact that borrowers are the furthest behind on their debt payments in 15 years. Asset prices soar, borrowing increases and the capital inflow grows. Finally, the bubble bursts, capital floods out and the banking system, burdened with mountains of bad debts, implodes.

The total number of job losses in the first 3 months of this year is 232,000 while unemployment rose to 5.1%. Job cuts were concentrated in the manufacturing, employment services and the construction industry but the damage is becoming more wide spread. US commercial banks alone are forecast to cut about 200,000 jobs over the next 12-18 months. US unemployment rate could potentially balloon to 8% in 2009.

Today’s credit crisis is far more than a symptom of a defective US financial system. It is a symptom of unbalanced global economy. This means that as more Americans become jobless, there will be stiffer competition for freelancer jobs with many trying to earn something from the internet for very low bids.