World in terrible Financial Crisis. What are your views?

[Stallion]

Over the past months, we are being welcomed by bad news, bad news and more bad news.

Together with the inflation as well as price hikes, how badly will we be affected?

What are you views of the current financial crisis?

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20081011/tbs-as-singapore-investor-protest-3c8dc0d.html

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20081012/tap-099-75-year-old-retiree-loses-s-4000-231650b.html

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/12/markets/markets_sunday/index.htm?postversion=2008101209

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20081012/twl-where-s-the-money-1be00ca.html

[Stallion]

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20081011/tap-finance-banking-us-singapore-protest-06f3cb7.html

Irate investors rally in Singapore, demand money back

SINGAPORE, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - About 600 angry investors who lost their savings because of the global financial turmoil gathered in Singapore on Saturday, urging the central bank to help them recover their money.

Many of the investors who trooped to the city-state's Speakers' Corner were retirees who invested their life savings in financial products linked to collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers and other institutions.

Tan Kin Lian, the former chief of a Singapore insurance cooperative who organised the gathering, urged the investors to bond together so that they will have a bigger chance of being heard.

He urged them to make individual affidavits and file their complaints as a group before the financial institution where they invested their money.

"If 20, 30 or 40 people make an affidavit at the same time, it will have a stronger impact," Tan said.

The crowd included those who invested in "Lehman Minibonds" and "Merrill Lynch Jubilee Notes". There were also those who invested in "high notes" with Singapore's DBS Bank and Morgan Stanley "pinnacle notes."

Lehman Brothers collapsed last month and its counterpart Merrill Lynch was bought out in a Wall Street meltdown that accelerated a global credit crisis.

Investors interviewed by AFP said they felt "cheated" and "betrayed" because the banks did not fully inform them of the risks when they were offered the financial products.

They also urged the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the de facto central bank, to order an independent investigation into the sale of credit-linked securities and to help them recover their money.

A 60-year-old woman said she risked losing 125,000 Singapore dollars (84,000 US) in life savings invested in DBS Bank "high notes", which promised a higher interest rate than fixed deposits.

"I am a retiree, this is my retirement money," she told AFP.

"I feel very cheated. I feel beaten up and eaten up. The bank must compensate us to bring back the confidence of investors and restore the image of the bank."

Speakers' Corner, the only place where protests are allowed under strict guidelines, usually attracts activists from Singapore's tiny political opposition.

[Stallion]

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20081013/tap-356-more-singaporeans-expected-seek-231650b.html

More Singaporeans expected to seek help for clinical depression, anxiety

SINGAPORE: The global economy is in a crisis, and psychiatrists say they expect to see more Singaporeans seeking help for clinical depression and anxiety.

Psychiatrists say many people sought such treatment during the Asian Financial crisis, SARS epidemic and after the September 11 attacks in the US.

And it would be no different this time round.

They say men are more likely to face psychological pressures, which they try to overcome by drinking, overworking or self—medicating sleeping pills — thereby worsening the situation.

Many also fear job loss, failed investments and lower property values.

Those suffering from depression or anxiety will be perpetually in low moods and losing sleep, appetite and weight.

Dr Yeo Seem Huat, a psychiatrist, said: "This crisis will affect different levels of people — from housewives to workers to directors of companies. So I think, compared to SARS, September 11, this one is more intense, is more serious." — CNA/de

[punggolboy]

The banker deserve it.   Look at it, if you delay your credit card payment by juz one day, financial difficulities to pay for your car and housing loan.....the bank will give you a cold shoulder, demand money from you, take legal actions, charged you late penalties, take away your car and your house and lock and chase you out of the house......but when the bank in financial trouble, we......a poor average s'porean have to contribute our hard earn money as taxes to help the bankers.   They never feel hardship, relaxing at home in the swimming pool, goin for holidays in europe, goin for expensive spa and massage etc etc.  Why we poor average s'porean must help this ppl.   Once they are out of this financial crisis, imagine what they would do.   Buy more ferrari's, buy more bungalow's......may be, continue to reposses more houses from poor singaporean, laughing at the bank thanking the govt for helping them from goin bankrupt but the govt never help their own ppl from hardship but help rich bankers from goin bankrupt. 

Withdraw all my $$$ and put it in a SAFE box.   SAFE boz aint expensive nowadays.