The U.S. Recession By Frank Elliot At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The current US recession has been viewed by most as the worst that ever that hit the country and prompted the Obama administration to approve the $787 billion stimulus package last February, which it hopes will save the economy from further sliding down.

The unemployment has reached a 26 year high of 8.10 percent which is equivalent to about 651,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to reach 10 percent by the end of the year. The US has one of the largest percentages of home ownership at 68 percent. Around 27 percent of these are mortgaged. The mortgage industry has been pinpointed as the root cause of the recession. Houses that used to command outrageously high prices is now worth less than what most home owners have loaned.

According to First American CoreLogic "about 8.31 million properties had negative equity at the end of 2008". And with the unemployment high, a big number people could lose their house due to foreclosures. The recession have also toppled business giants such AIG, Citi Group, Fannie and Mae and a lot more. The US stock market plummeted to just over the 7,100 mark. For the past two and a half months since the start of the year, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped by 25 percent.

The high unemployment, home foreclosure and low business activity in the US has altered the citizen’s personal finance behavior. With less cash in hand and threatened by retrenchment and house foreclosure, Americans are now saving more than spending. In fact, savings rate is going up by a high of 3.6 percent, which is 2.8 percent higher than the November 2008 level. This behavior has profound effects outside the US.

Being a Filipino doesn't spare me from the US recession, though I'm miles and miles away, it affects me especially my income. As a blogger, I noticed that pay per post assignments have all dried up. I haven't got any post assignments for the past 3 months. I haven't got any income for almost a year from my affiliate links. The US recession has prompted me to be resourceful in finding alternatives.

The call center industry in the Philippines has been a boon to the local economy, providing employment to a lot of Filipinos. As a programmer in one of the large call center in Iloilo, I’ve seen many of my fellow employees being laid off recently. From a high of more than 600 employees in 3 branches, we are now just numbering over 300. The company focuses on outbound calls in the US, with a lot of business shutting down, who is there to call to? I’ve never been insecure of my position that right now.

As a business owner of a computer repair shop, our sales have gone down so low. The US is not the only country that laid–off a large number of their workforce. Other countries also did and most are Overseas Filipino Workers or OFW's. Most of our customers are sons or daughters or wives or husbands of OFW's. Before they wouldn’t mind paying for computer repairs but now they would complain of our charges. If their computers are malfunctioning, they won't send their computer for repair as they normally would. This prompted me and my partner to look for other business opportunity.

In my personal point of view, the US recession affects everyone directly and/or indirectly wherever we are and each country’s government has a responsibility in solving this problem which has now spread worldwide.

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