Chinese New Year 26 Jan 2009

 

Chinese New Year - 26 Jan 2009 (Year of Ox)

For this Chinese New Year, took 10.5 days off as need to clear some of my last year's leaves and took a break from all the misery news. Since year 2007, after the housing loan's collapse, every day has been filled with bad news. Credit crunch, Lehman Bros closed down in Sept 2008, Merrill Lynch and AIG in troubles and need to be bailout by US government etc and it is never ending bad news, coming like the ocean waves, hitting upon all humankinds around the world. US unemployments went up (my company cut close to 1900 jobs from 2008 till now, China has 20 million workers losing their jobs etc). This is the bleakest moments for many as some lost jobs, lost their retirement fund (losing to Madoff, ex-Nasdaq CEO ponzi con-job. Some killed their families and took own lives), lost their homes etc and this hit around the world. With US consumer confidence at its lowest, the wave hit China as China is the biggest manufacturers for goods sent to USA and around the world. Once factories closed down or cutdown productions, it impacts mining industry and also scrapmetal companies. Oil price too dropped a lot in Q4'08, good news for consumers but bad news to oil companies.

To be contd...