Monday, November 17th, 2008...10:28 pm
Black Tuesday, not a day in the week would be spared…
DBS Bank retrenched 900 employees in the month leading to Christmas, and Citigroup up the ante by axing 50,000 jobs today. These are but among the recent headlines. Banks are collapsing, governments are stepping in, bending over backwards to hold back the dominos from falling, one of top of the other. Banks that have sent reassuring emails to clients one month ago decide to come clean and announce the actual losses in billions and billions of dollars.
Money that can fill vaults floors to ceilings, suddenly, irrevocably fictional, like a mirage, a windows screensaver. Gone. Poof.
Was it greed that lures these big organisations, global companies with impeccable records, sound fiancial backing and top ratings by standard’s and poor and moody’s to make short-term, speculative and risky decisions to the detriments of investors and account holders? How absurd it is to have a rating cut from AA to CCC- within days? Who slips up? What is the point then to have these unreliable highly volatile rating?
China may play with fire and deal haphazardly with the health of the general public. But corporations were also given free rein to play with fire with people’s money. To me, neither is a lesser crime, neither should go unpunished.
Karma has shown its face.
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