I don´t have stock but my mortgage is partly based on stocks, it is on of the many types of mortgage we have here. I´ve heard of people who´ve changed their ´stock-mortgage´ in a safer (??) one, a savings-mortgage. I won´t do that, as you said it is long term investment.

 I´m not familiar how your mortgages are where you live.  But I also feel  the media has created another "hype" to create panic.  I don´t blame people for being concerned, however 95% of Americans are paying their mortgages and they are paying them on time.  It´s not as bad as what the media is referring to back to 1929. You can relate to the downward stock market against what we saw after 911, but nothing like 1929.  Who knows what the future holds this could change.  But I think by creating panic it´s hurts the ecomony as well.  Just my thought.

 teas....you´re my idol!  I am now a Teaschipafarian!! 

 Absolutely spot on.  Unfortunately, too many people are uninformed when it comes to economics.  They are media-fed and reactionary so whenever they hear negative reports in the news regarding the markets....instead of researching and figuring out what would be best long term, they panic and turn into lemings, jumping off the cliff with everyone else.

This is a financial crisis.

A global financial crisis.A sea of debt.Into the storm.

But don´t worry.Because it is not an economic crisis.

How the financial crisis affects you?

 Well, since I have lost a large percentage of my retirement (which hopefully will bounce back) I have had to change my retirement plan from, "early retirement in Turkey" to "work until I die!" 

But I am fine yilgin, how are YOU??? 

so do you suggest people to go buy some AIG stocks? would you do that yourself? No matter what the governments do to bail their big companies out of bankruptcy, the investment will slow down for a period.

I think its pretty amazing that people can somehow conclude the media is trying to create a panic. If anything I believe they would try and hide how bad things "really" are, but I´m the "paranoid everything is a conspiracy" type   I just find it ironic seeing 10 men from my company that were due to retire in Dec. now will have to wait 3 years due to the "media hyped" recession. Hmmm

As for me, I am fine...... poor and can´t get and worse

Karekino,

Never mind.

I see this is only a financial crisis.An accounting crisis or debt crisis between  payables and receivables.

A liquidity crisis on financial flows of the companies.

They call it a liquidity and cash flows crisis.

In my opinion This is a big professional fault of the accounting and auditing firms in the U.S.

Because these accounting and auditing companies cannot manage and inspect-audit accounting transactions in some sectors like mortgage and construction.

But it It will goes also like everything.

Bad times also goes away.

It is not a big problem.

I think it will be solved soon.

Because this is not an economic crisis.

Not an economic crisis like 1929 global economic depression in the world.

Glad to see you bed Americans are not affected

It is no "media hype".  I would hate to tell that to all the people who are now unemployed. The only reason it has not affected us as bad as in the 1920s is because our governments have bailed out the banks, but this can´t continue. 

However, the media DO affect the situation dramatically.  They create fear, which exacerbates the situation.  A good example was when the Irish banks guaranteed savings.... all the money from UK banks suddenly disappeared and was transferred to Irish banks which simply made the situation worse.

Personally, most of us are still unaffected.  My mortgage went up slightly last month, but I changed it to a tracker one and it decreased again this month.  We see oil prices coming down again and petrol is getting cheaper.  However, if you have a small business or are trying to purchase your first house, things will be very hard indeed.

The effects on the rest of us will be more long term - retirement pensions, savings etc.  Salary increases will be less than inflation.  Public spending will be at a minimum because local authorities invested our money unwisely, so this will affect public services, roads, amenities, schools (and in the UK´s case, hospitals). People are spending less, so retail and leisure industries will start to suffer and many will close. Banks will never again operate in the same way as before (which is probably a good thing!!!).  There will be a dripping tap decline...... and Yilgun you are wrong, it will get worse before it get´s better