Great Depression 2.0, Anyone?

Try to step out of your house today, drop by anywhere – be it a mini market, hair salon, cafe, restaurant, parks, or even the mamak stall, and you will only hear people talking about ONE topic.

RECESSION – The whole world is in for the worst economic meltdown in history.

In this multicultural society of Malaysia, this phenomena is conversed, interpreted and expressed in many colorful languages. For instance:

1. Hang Cheng Pai

Originating Language : Hokkien
Meaning : Market Very Bad

2. Si Beh Jialat Liow

Originating Language : Hokkien
Meaning : Die Father Deepshit already

3. Ekonomi Slow Lah

Originating Language : Malay
Meaning : Economy Slow “Lah”

4. Sei Lor……

Originating Language : Cantonese
Meaning : Going to Die “Lorrrrrr……..” must pronounce the “Lorrrrr……” with articulation and delays!

5. *Taking a Deep Breath* Haaaaaaiiiiiiiiiihhhhhh……………

Originating Language : Any Language also Can use this.
Meaning : * Disappointed, Sad, Depressed, Screwed Up *

Those are just a few.

For the record, the US is the country worst hit by this round’s financial tsunami, with mega investment banks like Lehman Brothers going down and funny enough, super insurance companies like AIG, also going bonkers.

This phenomena has caused a ripple effect to any countries associated with the Tai Kor (the US of course) of the world, and now economic powerhouses like Japan, Singapore and even Europe, have suffered negative growth or technical recessions.

If you go and ask your parents, or any elderly people around you, they will relate this to a term that sounds somewhat familiar to us - The Great Depression of 1930s.

“Attendances” in temples these days suddenly appears to be very good, especially in societies with heavy Buddhists and Taoists influence.

Even Churches around the world have started revving up their “marketing” campaigns to attract believers.

The thing is, despite all the anticipation for the Great Depression to repeat itself, do you really know what the 1930 Great Depression was like? Let’s take a look at some facts.

If you take a look at Chart 1, it depicts the unemployment rate in the US from 1929 to 1943. That’s more than 25% of the US population out of jobs during the worst times. At the current unemployment rating of 6.5% in the US, we have a long way more to go before we can declare that it’s Great Depression 2.0.

If that happens, we will have every donkey reason to panic and economic experts suggest that we sell every asset we own, including, yes, money. How to sell money right? Simple. Exchange them with Gold. Imagine the scenario where hyper-inflation sets in and our currency value drops to a super alarming level…

We would be weighing our paper money on scales to buy, say, a beer.

Are we heading for the Great Depression 2.0? If we are, how come our government seems cool about things? We still hear reports on papers of our leaders saying that we are still in good shape, and our Ringgit is still strong, and our GDP is growing, and…. all those bullshit.

I think probably our leaders have recently dug out, read and got inspired by their Machiavellian political book - The Prince again, because while other countries are talking about how to save their weakening economies from crashing, Malaysian authorities still have time to ban Yoga.

Malaysia Masih Boleh.

My advice to you guys out there:

1. Don’t be over confident. If your business is great now, I suggest saving all your profits as much as possible and keep overheads to a minimum.

2. If it’s possible to liquidate all your assets, do it and keep the cash.

3. Pull your cash out of the share market and wait till January before considering investing again (if you’ve already bought Ramunia PA, I’m very sorry. Better keep the cert then!).

4. If you’re not comfortable keeping your money in the bank, then buy a safe, or put it underneath your pillow.

5. If you’ve got a job, please don’t complain about your boss or your company for the time being. You should be feeling lucky you still have a job!

6. Start learning how to cook Maggi Mee instant noodles. Just in case.

If you still don’t know what to do after reading the above, then just contact me and I’m more than welcome to keep your money for you