The day that Barack Osama won the presidential elections, the thought that came into my mind was, “After 8 years of George W. Bush, has the United States finally come to its senses?” With the $700 billion government bailout of the top financial institutions, I thought, “Ah, there we go.”
I’ve been reviewing the analysis on the economic meltdown that is currently happening in the US. What basically happened was the US underwent a housing bubble that just burst. If you remember a few years ago, companies like Enron and Worldcom declared bankruptcy and nobody tried bailing them out; instead, they became the poster children for corporate excesses. Now, financial institutions like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehmann Brothers are getting a bailout.
Its not as if all of this wasn’t predicted years before. Many people didn’t choose to listen to the doomsayers because, heck, that’s the nature of bubbles. The thing is, the politicians got involved because they had to be seen doing something. Remember 9/11? The US military invaded Iraq through the lie of Weapons of Mass Destruction because people demanded a big show of force against an enemy that couldn’t be located (where in the world is Osama?) And now, with millions of people about to lose their homes during election season, it won’t be enough for politcians to say this downturn is a necessary self-correction of the free market. Last I heard, they’re printing more money to fund the $700 billion bailout. That will lead to dollar devaluation. Eesh.
So what does this mean for the Philippines? Convert all your dollars to other currencies, and save up for that trip to the US. Things are going to be mighty cheap over there pretty soon.
