Is there still some hope for a few of us?

While the Asian and European markets continue their downfall closely following Wall Street, some Latin American markets are glad to show that this crisis has not had such a harmful impact on them as it did elsewhere.

Unfortunately, not only financial organisations have felt the effects of the crisis, but now other companies, such as Marks & Spencer Group plc., British Airways, Indian’s largest zinc producer, Vendanta Resources plc., have suffered a drop in their stock prices of around 5% due to the overall economic downturn. One of the reasons for the drop in stock prices is the concern from financial companies and commodity producers that the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will not be able to deliver his plan. If Mr Paulson’s plan of buying $700bn of bank assets does not take place, global recession will not be able to be prevented.

As mentioned above, there are still some markets that have not been affected to a great extent. In the Latin American region, excluding Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil, there are a few markets that are still stable and rather going up than following the path many markets in the rest of the world have followed. One of the reasons for this could be that the banks of the affected sector at present do not have any specific presence in the Latin American Region. As evidence of this, Citibank is now showing a great interest in increasing its presence across various Latin American countries.

Maybe the financial crisis in the developed world will prove to have a positive effect on less developed regions. This might be the start to a new era of prosperity in a part of the world which still is more or less unexploited by this specific sector. Will these financial institutions have a change of scenery from Canary Wharf and the River Thames to the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River? That is something we will have to wait and see.

Is the job hunt about to begin?

The damage in the economy caused by the credit crunch has had greater implications than we might have thought. Looking at unemployment today, it is not the most pleasant reading out of an economic perspective and it does not look like it will get any better in the near future. The effective rate of job losses last quarter added up to as much as 150,000 jobs and it looks like it will not get better any time soon. The bankruptcy of Lehman brothers is just going to add to this effect, not only by the 4,000 jobs lost over a day down in Canary Wharf, but also all the businesses providing services in the area.

Already days after the crash of Lehman Brothers, businesses like restaurants, gym instructors, local corner shops etc. claimed they have felt the effect. For example, just imagine that Tuesday morning this week there were "4,000" less people using the tube. With an already weak economy, can we handle a job loss of this magnitude with possibillities of more financial institutes following the path of Lehman Brothers. I can even imagine that many of the businesses in the surroundings were initially set up in order to fulfil the needs of this banking giant. Consequently, the fall of Lehman Brothers will bring more unemploymment into the market than only the immediate employees of the bank itslef.

At a point where the economy is struggling can it cope with a massive group of job loss in the financial sector and will these individuals will be able to find a new job in a sector already in crisis. This remains to be seen and I am sure that we will see a slowdown of not only the financial businesses but also local service providers in the city of London.