About my blog : Financial News !

Over the past years as advancing in my studies at European Business School in London I came into contact and gained a deeper interest in the banking industry. For a long time a job in banking was an insurance policy and a ticket to success for young graduate like myself . With the upcoming of the financial crisis and the worsening of the situation over the past months the belief that a career in banking would last , changed not only from my point of view but also that of my friends.

The banking institutions described in my blog were once the crown jewels of the financial and banking industry. Today, job losses, default and uncertainty affect them in a way no one ever thought possible. Even the brightest minds of the investment world, such as Warren Buffet and Prince Sultan Al Waleed Bin Talal were not able to foresee the impact of the crisis on institutions such as Goldman and Citigroup, respectively.

Investment advisors, private bankers, wealth managers and hedge fund managers who used to talk about the euro hitting the 2USD barrier, or the barrel of oil at 200USD; are nowhere to be seen. The world has become so complicated, and the economic system has expanded beyond our understanding, that few people are able to look at what is happening now and give a proper explanation or analysis. In fact, my blog aims at presenting a fresh, easy to understand and dynamic approach to the financial crisis.

This word “crisis” is what determines our behaviour these days. I recently came across a very good joke which defined optimism as “a private banker ironing five shirts on a Sunday evening”. Some of my friends, and friends of friends, and many more strangers in the city of London, and all over the world, have lost this optimism. When there is a lack of confidence in the market, then the game is paused, if not over. Problems expand, and what started as a virus in the financial market becomes a contagious disease affecting other industries, as the automobile.

Another example of how things can change, and how fast this change happens is seen with the American and European car manufacturing companies. More and more, as people reduce their spending, as the credit crunch forces Americans and Europeans to wake up from a dream of cheap credit and high liquidity; manufacturers bear the pain, orders are reduced and people loose their jobs. My family has been directly affected by this situation, and I have seen the difficulties with suppliers and a immediate reduction of sales. With the plans being drafted in both sides of the Atlantic and a change of Government in the US, things may well start to change.

Our world has changed, as fast as in the 20s, as strong as in the 40s and as dynamic as in the 80s. This time, the system is pushed to the limits of our understanding, and the phrase written in the dollar “in God we trust” becomes something of a premonition. To say what awaits us is to look into the future, and I will not attempt to do that; better know what is going on today, and what better way than using the internet.

By Jim Kohn