SQLServerCentral Editorial

The Financial Crisis

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This is a hard time for the entire globe, with our credit markets affecting businesses of all shapes and sizes. In the US in the last couple weeks we've seen a recession potentially turn into a depression. I'd like to think that things aren't that bad, but the shape of things in economies around the globe is like nothing I've seen in my life. If the price of oil hadn't retreated significantly in the last month things would be really bad.

In the Information Technology world, I see people talking about all kinds of effects from this from drastic cutbacks to potentially not much change in some industries. There are quite a few layoffs coming from the banking sector as consolidations occur, and I'm sure we'll see more from other industries. But overall, I'm not sure what might happen over the next year or so.

I'm hoping that most companies reset their expectations, don't try to achieve the same growth levels of the last 3-4 years, and let the economy get back on track. That may or may not occur, but since it's Friday, I wanted to poll the people out there working for a living and see what they think.

Will the current financial crisis affect you?

Will it affect your company? Your job? Your life outside work? I'm curious to what extent some of you are worried and what problems you might forsee.

I'm slightly worried, but not too worried. I'm 41 and I have enough time to ride things out. My Mom is getting close to retirement age, and if I had the investments I do at her age, I'd be worried. She's actually happy with things because she has most of her money in real estate.

My wife and I have seen the value of our investments go way down and if we needed the money in the next couple years that would be a problem. We do need to get a car for my son, and so we're trying to avoid tapping any credit lines right now if we can, and we're hoping that our companies decide we're worth keeping on. If that's the case, I think we won't be too affected.

But I'm sure we'll see some costs go up on credit cards and any debt we have. We try for fixed rates on our houses where possible to avoid things like this, but we have a little consumer debt that we might have to pay a bit more to service. That could be a good thing if it motivates us to pay it off quicker.

I think that we are in for 2-3 rough years ahead as the economy struggles with the debt issues we have. The last few years I think companies and people have taken a bit of advantage of cheap credit and extended themselves a bit and now it's time to deal with that. My guess is more than a few industries (banks and auto companies being two) need to reinvent themselves, and change their business models.

I hope most of you out there aren't too affected in your core lives, and maybe you can hunker down and work through this, but if you have things you are worried about, let us know. You might help someone else that hadn't considered that same thing in their own life.

Steve Jones


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