It's Coming...Beware

Obviously we have been hearing about the Financial Crisis that has been taking over the world. I still listen to NPR daily, and my husband works at JPMorgan. But...so far it has felt that it wasn't yet in Asia. I felt that the states are probably falling apart, and all of these homeowners are totally in a mess, but we're fine. They're still hiring in Singapore. Rent is still going up (remember - we pay what we paid in MANHATTAN, and we live in the suburbs here!). Ex-pats are moving in left and right, and all seemed to be normal.

But it doesn't feel that way anymore. Whenever we talk to our friends, everyone is worried about his job. People are making "Plan B"s all over the place. All of the banks have announced that they're cutting globally - there was a Wall Street Journal article that mentioned nearly every bank I know, including JPMorgan, and it said they're all cutting 10%-15% across the board (JPMorgan is cutting 15%).

Since we moved here we have heard about wait lists at ex-pat schools, and the American School has traditionally had a waiting list of over 400 students. Apparently that is gone.

People are saying their kids' friends are not showing up in school, because their parents lost their jobs.

I hadn't yet known anyone whom this affected, though, so even though I was hearing more about it lately, it really didn't feel that bad...until last night.

I heard from a friend that her husband lost a job (in the finance world), and they have three kids here - two enrolled in school. He had no warning. Just called into a meeting and escorted out of the office. I think this is the first of many that we're going to hear about, and it's really scary.

Considering the fact that I'm in one of the most expensive MBA programs in the world, and I have already come to the conclusion that I will be EXTREMELY lucky to find a job after I graduate, I definitely rely on Matt's income, and that's very scary right now.

Plus I read about what's happening with the cars in Detroit. Not only is my future worth at risk (the value of my parents' house and what not), it seems like it's going to be a total disaster. The "future worth" thing was a joke - don't worry, mom. Anyways, if one of those companies go down, it's gonna take a lot of the economy with it.

Scary stuff...