Tuesday, January 20, 2009

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger

I never really experienced a recession. Wasn't born in the 1930s, nor the 1970s, and too young to understand the 97 Asian crisis... and somehow even the dotcom bust of 2001/2 didn't really affect me.

But now I'm right smack in the middle of one.

And it sucks.

The RBS share price dropped yesterday from about 50p to 10p. It has probably fallen like 95% since its high about a year ago.

RBS posted a loss of 28billion pounds. Thats a really large number. 28,000,000,000. I can't really put that in perspective... suffice to say its probably the GDP of some small country. And I read an article saying RBS is the world's largest company by assets (or liabilities). If RBS were to be nationalised by the UK government, the debt of the UK would swell by 400%.

Not surprisingly, the GBP took a beating. RBS was downgraded - and since its likely that the UK government will step in and nationalise the bank, the UK is also on its way to be downgraded.

Its bleak.

But hey, don't worry about me. Its only a recession. I've been through more pain. And I've always believed, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

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