People losing jobs by the thousands, companies going belly up, working that second job to save, unemployment benefits hitting an all time high, companies using a wide range of tactics to simply survive the current economic climate. These measures are in some cases forced down their throats as in the case of the Auto industry and in other instances are attempts by the management to put into effect measures to ride out the worst financial crisis in the history of our times. The signals are so mixed at the moment that it is very unlikely the turn of events over the past year leading to the current economic crisis change significantly enough to warrant some increased optimism of the future, at least the short term future.
The banking sector, the largest recipient of President Obama’s bailout package is currently showing signs of bottoming out and analysts claim that the worst is over where as the auto industry is slowly flirting with bankruptcy. First it was Chrysler and now there is talk about GM following Chrysler into bankruptcy.
For pure play financial companies it is pretty slim pickings at the moment. While some are doing reasonably well, they are still aggressively looking at ways to reduce costs, get more clients and do all they can to sustain and overcome this lean period. Financial companies that are fundamentally strong have nothing to worry about says Jim Thompson ORIX CEO and President. Nothing could be more closer to the truth than that.