A London businessman may have to put off his wedding. A baker in Paris fears customers will disappear. A student in Slovenia sees an automobile loan fall out of reach. A real estate agent in Chicago says she’s just plain scared.
And in France, more Parisians appear to be storing their money the old-fashioned way : in a safe.
What are you doing differently due to the meltdown in the world financial markets? Leave your answer in comments. If you’d like us to include your comments in a Reuters wrap-up, please include your name, location and profession.
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I am concerned that the choices offered in this poll are all negative, which seems inconsistent with Reuters usual impartially.
There isn’t even a “None of the above” or “I’m holding on tight” option, which is what a lot of people are doing, refusing to succumb to a panic which is now at least partly media-induced.
- Posted by Terence JohnsonI cut back all expenses and removed some RRSP to pay down credit cars debt.We used to travel to litle towns outside of our city every weekend to show sight see etc.Not any more,now we go for walk at some of the local trails in our area.
- Posted by JackThe days of easy credit,high levering for a quick buck are gone,at least in our life time.
It astounds me how these wall street gurus still think there will be a quick fix for this crises and the markets will back to normal.Even after this massive de-leveraging
ends,there will be so much regulation and government intervention in the markets it will be as dull and as profitable as T-bills.
-Ageing population
-Healthcare crises
-Energy crises
We are in for some tough times folks.I predict unemployment goes to 15%
Just retired last December and moved 401k investments into international growth areas understanding that the U.S. economy was going flat. Slowly lost almost 15% over last 9 months thinking international markets were independent of U.S. Big mistake! Then over the last month and especially last week lost 15 more %! Total loss….72k! Have NO faith in Wall Street anymore. Moved all of investments out and putting into money markets, CDs and cash. Mark my words……the Dow will fall this coming week another 1000 points. Good luck to all. PS…..did anyone notice that Allan Greenspan has virtualy disappeared from the media in the last month, when before that he was making comments almost daily after Bernanki made his statements?
- Posted by GeorgeUS citizen 59. Lost $130,000 so far in IRA. We are all being taken for a ride. The wealthy, investment houses, banks and the US government will protect themselves and the average person will be left with the short end of the stick. We are consumer lemmings hedged in by these people. If you operate outside of their system by being frugal it’s only going to hurt others like you. Rock and a hard place
- Posted by MikeThe fallacy of buy and hold has been dispelled once and for all and sadly a question is raised about the long term viability of free market capitalism. Although we have Bush to blame about these tragic events we must recognize that he had alot of help to get us here. Reagan’s deficit spending spree…Greenspan’s free market dogma…ceo’s and political leaders worry about tactical planning versus longer term strategic planning, and finally unbridled American consumption without thought of the future are just a few of the players. The way I’m playing this mess is by tactical trading because I know in the long run…as long as we spend more than we produce this will end very badly.
- Posted by JoeIt\’s not affecting me very much. Over the years I saved money, I carry no credit card debt, and did not enter into a stupid home loan. I think it might be good for the system to meltdown.
- Posted by PaulWanted to become an actor, but studio started to cut production budget, I cannot even afford the cocaine anymore and now I have to use crack which stinks and puts me on bad trips in which I hallucinate about the world going down.
- Posted by Rayi live in kuala lumpur, malaysia. so far, no direct impact from the US financial crisis, except if you hold stocks, which had declined by 20%. ironically, with this comes lower oil prices, which would be good as inflation was something we worry more than stock market crashes. only the rich play the markets.
- Posted by Keongthe crisic hit my home in Vietnam, all the food go up and my wife have to consider which food to buy for the familly. The energy will be up dueto the notice from the authority , so We have to saving the budget to suffer for the difficult duration expect for end of year and also extension during next year, the budget must be made as week to week and cancelling for all the travelling plan. We are loss 1/2 for the total invest in stock and now are just waiting for the economic recover in next year.
- Posted by Hai NinhGraduated recently, can’t find a job. Was looking for the financial industry but it’s hopeless.
- Posted by PaulTrying to switch my focus to elsewhere but it seems that the avalanche is now hitting other industries as well, taking into account the loss in market values in all major equity markets.
Hyderabad, India, Software Engineer
We are more concerned than affected. Apprehension about the outsourcing is growing big. And we are bothered for the ICICI bank’s exposure. But, frankly, the full impact of crisis has not hit the conscience of common man yet. N-Deal is still more prominent.
Short to medium term effect will be lower realty prices which may help me in getting my first home on EMI. Currently, I may expect rents to stay normal. And lower petrol price will bring down some prices. Maybe I can get good discount on my first car also. Airlines ticket prices will come down again.
Overall, high-flying will be affected more than a common man. Few of them will lose their $-denominated salaries and stop acquiring property everywhere in India.
- Posted by Atul KumarTo start, I live in a suburb of Detroit. This has been one of the hardest hit areas economically in the past 10 years. But it is strange. The city of Detroit is gutted but the suburbs are seemingly doing great. You go to any restaurant in the suburbs and they are doing great with 30 minute plus waits. If people are so cash strapped what are they doing eating out multiple times a week. There are truly the haves and the have nots. I have found that alot of the people complaining about how bad things are, are actually those people doing quite well. Strange!!
- Posted by BrianI lost my job in 2007 as company started to outsource cheap IT professional from overseas. Stop outsourcing our jobs in cheap labor countries or start to outsource everything. Forget fragile BRIC’s (Brazil, Russia, India and China) growth or forget US growth.
Outsourcing is the blood cancer for US economy.
- Posted by A.