In light of the upcoming Great Depression 2.0, companies around the world are desperately cutting operation and management costs within their organizations. Companies who have been dubbed “unstoppables” or “uncrushables” or “solid like gold” seemed to be vulnerable this time around.

The Honda RA108. History from 2009 onwards.

And Honda is one of them. Citing the global financial crisis, they have decided to exit the highest profile motor racing event in the world – Formula 1.

I can understand how painful this decision could be.

Ayrton Senna : Lived and Died alongside Honda.

Firstly, Formula 1 racing has always been a very thick cultural heritage for Honda, riding the roller coster of success and despair over the 34 years of involvement in this sport, partnered with the best teams ever in Formula 1 before, namely McLaren-Honda as well as BAR, and having been associated with perhaps the most legendary F1 driver of all time – Ayrton Senna. So to let all this go so suddenly, well, it must have been very unfair to the fans and the engineering team who have dedicated their whole lives for the well being of the Honda team.

But the most painful reason, and perhaps one that makes this decision to withdraw from this sport even more easier for Takeo Fukui (CEO of Honda), is the price they need to pay to maintain the team. Honda pays USD542 million a year to maintain this racing team, and on top of that spends an even bigger chunk of cash on Indycar and Motorcycle racing.

And he’s leading the cost cutting strategy by example.

Then.

Now.

Seriously, I think this Formula 1 sport is already too over rated. It’s so freaking expensive today that only conglomerates can afford to sponsor such a cause. The true spirit of the sport has eroded.

Even spectators like us will have to pay RM50 just to freaking sit on the grass at Sepang F1 Circuit under the hot sun! And who are the guys making the big bucks? Media Moguls, and the sakai-looking Bernie Ecclestone himself (owner of Formula 1) I guess.

If Lisa thinks that she looks like a sakai, try beating this look!

The true Sakai. Billionaire Sakai.

If one can imagine Formula 1 without Honda, try imagining Formula 1 without Ferrari. I was just pondering briefly on this and I predict that the following might happen if Ferrari quits F1 :

1. FIA will be so depressed because Ferrari has always been synonymous with Racing, they will launch a worldwide marketing campaign to change the perceptions of racing companies, lowering fees, media expenditures and requirements. And they will do it all in Red color to beckon Ferrari to come back to F1. I believe their advertising campaign will look like this :

The FIA will have to learn from Tony Fernandes on this one.

2. Because of Ferrari’s departure, people around the world will get sick of the sport and decide to watch Horse Racing instead. The same will go to the sponsors like Hugo Boss, Marlboro, Tag Heuer, and Vodafone, who will prefer to sponsor the horses and the jockeys instead when their audience switch interests. It’s cheaper too!

I mean, how much grass can a horse eat compared to the gallons and gallons of expensive fossil fuel consumed by F1 cars right?

It’s more environmentally friendly as well and will be endorsed by WWF, as the by-product are feces which can be used as fertilizers for plants instead of carbon monoxides which pollutes our air.

Cheaper. And Greener too.

3. FIA will decide to rev up another global marketing campaign to plead ex-F1 fans back to support the sport, so they will to talk to all the venue hosts around the world and allocate erm… free seats. Like Air Asia. But you’ll have to book online.

Now everyone can afford F1 tickets too! No Fuel Surcharge perhaps???

4. With the requirements lowered and participation fees brought down, many smaller car manufacturers around the world will slowly join the bandwagon and participate in F1 racing. One such manufacturer will come from Boleh-land, where else none other than Malaysia, where Proton will join Formula 1 racing!

Malaysia Boleh F1!

However, due to limited funds and technical expertise, Proton will only join F1 with their not-so-impressive debut car, the MMB-2020 model (Malaysia Masih Boleh 2020)! It will be at least 30 years behind in terms of technology, but heck, everyone has to start somewhere right?

Don't laugh. I mean, everyone has to start somewhere right?

How many of you will agree that F1 is too overrated and requirements (especially in terms of monetary commitments) should be brought down so that the true spirit of the sport can once again be revived?

Comments welcomed.

Everything's Down. Including our Income.

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:

Bear is the way to go!

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.

GDP now stands for : Great Depressing Periods

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.

Kuan Ni Ma... Bo Pi Bo Pi...

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

A church's "marketing" effort?

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

Jobless men on streets during the Great Depression in 1930s. Are we going to end up like this?

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.

Chart 1 and Chart 2

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…

That's how much a beer will cost you in Zimbabwe today.

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.

Politics of Show and No Substance

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