Who's feeling the financial crisis?

Scheng1, Sorry i have to disagree with you. The only retirees that believe they won't feel the financial crisis will actually feel it. Most retirees have their monies in investments and have lost out substancially (I know of people who had $3 Mill in retirement and now have less than $500,000. These retirees have been effective by so much by the financial crisis and they have been affected most by the way that they have no time to recover. If you are on government pensions however you may believe that you will be fine. This is another interesting assumption - I have to disagree, yes you will continue to live on your pension, but these pensioners struggle enough as it is on their current pension payments, yes some cheaper things are out there, but I don't believe this to be the case for too long. I expect things to get a great deal worse with the world economy even though most economist believe different. I am in the business of finance and the industry and can't see it getting much better for a long time, we could have a short-term wave of confidence, but the world needs this to bring prices, and business back to reality for the younger generations. This financial crisis was not unforeseen by many in the industry, however this is part of cycles, and the real question is what is next to come?

Hi Daveslaw, I'm referring more to the retirees in Malaysia and Singapore. It is true that some retirees are affected negatively in their investment portfolios. However, majority of retirees in Singapore and Malaysia are not educated, and the main source of investment is fixed deposit. Some of the older ones belong to the "biscuit tins" generation, who used to keep the money in biscuit tins. The vulnerability of the retirees came into spotlight a few months ago. Many retirees had substantial savings. The customer service officers in the bank persuaded them to invest in structured products related to Lehman, claiming that the structured products are "as safe as fixed deposit, and guaranteed to earn xxx percent". The government forced the banks to refund those uneducated retirees. Those are the ones who still used thumbprints in bank accounts. I think the retirees in other parts of the world are feeling the pinch more, because the bulk of their money is in mutual funds.

yes businesses are being affected, individuals are being affected and there isn't much we can do about this unfortunately. However, it we look back at the economy always has these setback to 'adjust the boom markets' overpriced markets. Yes over priced! I'm sorry but for people who have seen a house go from a value of $100,000 to $400,000 in the last 10 years could be seeing some price corrections coming soon (if not already - some countries have been hit hard already) I believe we will see some good times (not for long, and we are current in them now - however it will end very soon and could get worse than we ever saw before.