As the result of the financial crisis, both the stock market and the property market tumble. Banks tighten their outgoing loans further thus aggravating the economy with its credit crunch. Our 401K accounts shrink. People especially baby boomers become very much concerned how to support their retirement. People who are devastated most are those with their homes going back to the banks and their family have no habitat to dwell.
The collapse of the US financial markets are deepening into an economic crisis. It is going to affect every walk of life not just confining to the financial institutes and banks. These effect would spread globally and the whole world is going to be dragged down as the result of the US economic melt-down. This process have started already. The downturn momentum will not go away for some time. One year, two years, three years, nobody knows. More cases similar to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme will be exposed thus further weakening people's confidence.
Recently, I repeatedly ask myself what is wrong with all these big names such as AIG, GM, Ford, Chrysler, CitiCorp, etc. I think my fellow boomers have the same question at the back of their mind. These companies and their CEOs, top executives, senior management are blamed for their lack of vision, alertness to potential danger and readiness to change.
They are the elite people of all these international corporations. There is no doubt about their knowledge and smartness. Their professionalism and ethics are questionable. Their focus are too much on the short term ones. Monetary benefits would blind people from seeing the true big picture ... the hidden melt-down of their corporations. The vision for a evergreen healthy company is gone. Are these people focusing on monies and related benefits for themselves only? . The pursuit of the quick dollar is contagious. It flowed from CEOs to their followers, then to the greedy people walking on the streets. People's greed blind their their judgment. The brain power is lost as their brain become obsessed with greed for quick money. Many people bought stocks, real estates simply because they saw so much money out there and they did not want to be left out. Greed is all over the places in this world.
What can we do next? If you are planning for retirement, it is time to rethink about postponing it to a later date. It is time to start seeking for something new and something meaningful. How about making your knowledge and experience to make money for you?
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