Thursday 13 November 2008

Tsunami Has Yet To Settle Down

This morning report in Yahoo, it reads...US financial turmoil continues to worsen and now US Government may need more than US3 trillion to bail out companies (wonder...where do they have the money ? as we understand that they are the biggest borrower in the world and owing a lot of debt from other countries). The money continues to count. The latest recepient would be the automaker industry as it was learnt that GM is under a lot of stress.

Dowjones suffers 3rd straight losses with last night clocked in negative more than 350 points and I have just realised that the bank interest rate in US is now only 1% after they had a latest cut in late October. Experts said that they may go for zero if situation warrants (OMG...what is going on ?).

Luckily China declares over US580 billion stimulus plans in recent days and it did the wonder with rising of major Asia bourses indexes. However, how long will it last as rumours was saying...what are those stimulus packages actually ? Is it for real ? Or can it really stand off against US financial effects.

At local end, we had Tun Dr. M advises that to handle this mammoth financial issues, we need International cooperations and he does not have the confidence in Obama to settle this turmoil alone...what more to Najib, our next PM.

Government is going forth with new approval of option to reduce contribution to EPF by 3% from employees is to aim in encouraging spending as to spur up the local economy. Does it really help ? To certain extent yes but majority will not opt for the 3% reduction as the amount involved is little (RM2,000 x 3% = RM60.00 per month) and it is better to keep in a retirement fund. That is probably why the government has given auto default that for those who does not want the 3% cut, they have to fill up the form. Well, through this action, a lot of us may find inconvenience to fill up the form and thus we join many others to automatically have our EPF contribution reduced by 3%. That is a great strategy by the government, isn't it ?

Nevertheless, it may be good for those who are discipline enough, using that extra money to invest themself in more profitable investment vehicle as I think (I hope not) EPF dividend for this year may be reduced downward (last year, it was 5%) in view of the economic downturn.

I pray for Mahathir-like economic management style (in our government) will help yet another saving for Malaysia from this devastating effects of financial rolling of US Financial Tsunami...

3 comments:

William said...

This is going to be a long winter. The recession might become depression.

Hope that we can go through it.

mygreatbuds said...

Yeap, Will

Hey, AUD is now weaker than RM. May be is good to keep some AUD.

BTW, Australian government also giving freebies for those residents who wish to buy house in an effort to support the real estate industry.

Are you owning one ? May it is good to buy one...what do you think ?

William said...

The government is providing assistant in purchasing propoerty and bringing up children. I recieved my first home owner grant last year and it was more than ten thousand short compared to the offer today.

In addtion, there will be issue of some money to all residents next month. Not quite sure the amount yet.

But in industrial and business, there is sad news. Companies are retrenching. Bsnks are axing thousand of employees. Big mining companies are going to retrench too due to the decrease demand of resources.

The only advantage of Australia compared to Malaysia is the social security payment. If one is retrenched in Malaysia there is no help but in Australia there is social security payment to keep one afloat although the amount is less than full time job.