Brace ourselves for the worst roller coaster ride since 1997

With the whole world's stock markets seemingly crashing down, our Malaysian leaders are still more interested on who is fighting for No. 2 or VP etc etc. Of course people will say that before we can arrest the economic downturn, the Country must go through its Party elections, which unfortunately is going through now.

But that aside, I do not see any plans from our new Finance Minister on what he intends to do. Malaysia is currently not a country greatly affected by sub-prime loans, but that does not mean we would not suffer from what is expected to be a terrible economic depression. I dont think Malaysians have comprehend the magnitude of the problems ahead of us.

For those who is not in the know of what a sub-prime loan; in summary - loans which Banks provide which are not the top range loans. The top prime loans are normally the loans given to Corporate giants which the Banks is very sure that the loan will be re-paid. Sub-prime loans are the ones with higher chance of default. Unfortunately these sub-prime loans in US seems to be defaulting all over that country and hence the domino effect from that to the whole economy.

Najib continues to assure us that we are financially stable. I hope he's right, and I want him to be right. Unfortunately Malaysia is very reliant on the US for investment. No matter how strong we are, when US' economy is out of sort, so will our economy.

The fact that US approved a US$ 700 Billion (not million but billion) to save the companies ailing due to the collapse of these sub-prime loans, speaks volume of what they are facing. That amount of money can rebuild a whole country. And US is using it to save a few major companies only. They are truly in deep s**t.

My proposal for the Government, is to decrease export tax to encourage people to export more and increase import tax on luxury items. We should also look at enhancing our internal economy, like Tourism, Culture etc etc.

As I read more about this economic problem we are facing, I hope to write a bit more about what we can do to brace ourselves for this great challenge ahead for our Country.