By financen | April 27, 2009 - 4:34 pm - Posted in Recession

Last time when the economy saw serious turmoil was during the Great Depression of 1929. The number of stressors is looming large, and due to this downturn in their financial situation, they are getting forced to prescription drug abuse.

Recession has caused a large number of unemployment throughout the world. While most people consume medicines as prescribed by their doctors, 20% of the total population has started taking pharmaceutical drugs for non-medical reasons. The problem of prescription drug abuse is serious and growing.

Experts believe that prescription drug abuse among most of the Americans is increasing because of job loss, health problems caused by stress, gloomy weather, bounced checks, declining job market, increasing heating bills, etc.

People who are poor are getting into drug abuse, depending on street narcotics and alcohol, narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers and stimulants. The declining pharmaceutical industry sales figures might be a consequence of people postponing expensive medications for illnesses such as heart disease. This foregoing of treatment shows up as increases in sales of pain killers and mood elevators.

There has not been a definite reason of why the drug abuse is going higher, in general. Some people are indicating towards the easy availability of drugs. There are some who believe that doctors are now prescribing more drugs for health problems than ever before. Another reason of the drug abuse increasing higher is the online pharmacies who are selling these drugs to most of the youngsters without any kind of prescriptions from a doctor. Ultimately it is affecting the future of the youngsters as well as many responsible grown up people affected during the recession period.

By financen | April 23, 2009 - 3:48 pm - Posted in Foreclosures, Recession

Due to the economic recession, foreclosure crisis and huge costs for the financial bailout, the federal deficit has shoved to a record high of the budget year’s first four months.

The treasury management announced that the deficit from October 2008 to January 2009 amounted to $569 billion and this is more than six times compared to the imbalance during the year age period. In January alone, the deficit amounted to $83.8 billion, which was worse than what the economists predicted. It was something close to $78 billion. The administration had to rush a surplus of $17.8 billion last January 2008.

Recession has taken such a gruesome effect mainly because of the decline in the finances of the government that sliced into tax revenues, foreclosures, as well as huge amount of money being used from the Congress’ $700 billion financial rescue plan passed last October. An estimated 75 percent of the increase in deficit was attributed to the spending on the bailout program.

The budget year is going to happen in a few months from now, and the deficit has already exceeded the projected amount causing a disparity of $454.8 billion which is the full-year record.

The Congressional Budget office predicts that the deficit will strike up to $1.2 trillion. This is excluding the cost of the economic stimulus plan pushed by the US president guiding the Congress to immediately approve to fight the housing foreclosure and economic recession. Some private economists are forecasting that the deficit will go up to $1.6 trillion.

The Treasury secretary unveiled a revamp of the bailout plan, delineating changes on how the administration intends to utilize the second $350 billion. These initiatives would bind the bail out funds to assets at the private sector and the Federal Reserve to amplify lending initiatives by as much as $2 trillion. The administration is also planning to utilize the $50 billion from the bailout fund to release new government initiatives to fight the recurring mortgage foreclosures. New strategies have been initiated by the Housing and Urban Development Department with the help of housing group representatives and top bank executives to restructure the new programs and combat foreclosures.

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By financen | April 17, 2009 - 4:12 pm - Posted in 2009 Recession

The world is going through extraordinary times during the recession period and this is like something not experienced since the world wars. Many business and industries are going through turmoil and uncertainty in the current financial market. There are many financial surveys to read but hard to digest. Many industries all around the world are looking for help.

The pharmaceutical and health-care industry have historically been relatively immune to economic turndowns, because there’s vacation period for illness. However, the financial support will be reduced during the ongoing recession. Therefore, like in other industries, it is expected that the most affected by the reduced availability in funding will be the early stage biotech and pharmaceutical companies who need funding. But is there more to come?

Some of the possible speculations are as follows:

There is a very good chance that things will get worst than before because of the present market being so uncertain and no help from any financial investors because of the probable risk factors, notably in regards to the early or short term investments. In such a scenario, all industries will be affected. Companies with little cash will find hard to survive, until the economy heals.

Investors are often reluctant to put their money into biotech and pharmaceutical companies because of the other very attractive industries such as buyouts and investments in resources (mines, oil). Opportunities for capital will continue to decline due to the present economic condition. Because of the present and well recorded risk factors in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, investors are going to stay away and put their assets in other sectors where risk is less. Exit routes always play an important role. Unless there is a fast return, there is only one way for a biotech/pharma company to be profitable: through acquisition by a larger biotech or pharmaceutical company. The way these companies usually grow, its kind a tough to see something like this happens. Smaller companies who are unable to sustain their finance could potentially ask bigger biotech/pharma company to bankroll them, allowing the industry to survive and even grow.

The second hypothesis has already started taking place. Big drug companies are on the shopping spree. Acquisitions are becoming cheaper due to the tumbling stock market. Smaller companies that are struggling to find loans or capital are more inclined towards the bigger companies for help and survival.

Nonetheless, it is important to remember that although the recession has yield great merges and acquisitions by the bigger biotech/pharma companies, the biotech and pharmaceutical industry is also very affected by the economic slowdown, and many of them are cutting jobs and closing factories. The belief of pharmaceutical and the health-care industry immunity to economic turndown is now on hold, and so is the hope for new medicine breakthrough.

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There are very few people who have remained unscathed during the current financial 2009 recession. Many employees and their families are frightened to think about their future. Credit has tightened, housing prices have gone up, and investment portfolios are in tatters. Things have gone worse, but this is not the time to panic. Financial analysts unanimously agree that your greatest assets in troubled times is the ability to remain calm.

You have to keep your perspective during their financial recession and you have to think with a clear head. You will be making worse short term decisions if you are more dialed into the daily financial events. All your decisions are filtered by a cognitive bias called the “recency effect” which causes us to place greater emphasis and importance on our most recent experiences and project them into the future and in most cases it happens to go wrong in some ways or the other.

The way to beat this economic bias is to maintain a big picture, make a long term view of both the financial markets and your own personal financial goals. Things may looks rotten now, but history says that situation will reverse. The average recession lasts about one year and the average bear market lasts for 18 months approx., but this cannot be taken as guaranteed.

You have to plan for success. Since you are facing a tremendous financial beating, its time to do something. If you are approaching retirement, consult a financial advisor. Here are a few tips that will help to maintain both your sanity and your net worth.

• Keep your long term and short term goals entirely separate. Experts say that you should not invest that money in the stock market that you might need within the first five years.
• Accurate access your risk tolerance. You may have overestimated your stomach for wild swings prior to this current crisis. You now need to adjust accordingly for the future.
• Diversify your investments. This will help you to reduce risk and volatility.
• Don’t obsess over daily market fluctuations. Avoid checking your portfolio everyday. This may lead to impulsive decisions and anxiety.
• Don’t make a guesswork trying to time the market by continuing to make investments at regular intervals.
• Learn how to live on cash during emergencies, just in case if something goes wrong. You should have adequate arrangements that should last for at least 6 – 8 months. This will be quite a tough assignment for many people but you will sleep better at night and make better financial decisions knowing that you have that cash cushion.
• Make small and incremental changes when rearranging finances. When you buy and sell investments, do it in small blocks, rather than doing it all at once.
• This may be a very good opportunity to trim excess fat from your budget. Reining and spending will reduce most of your worries and help you regain a sense of control.

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By financen | April 5, 2009 - 5:08 am - Posted in Foreclosures, Investment

When discussing about foreclosure, there are two groups of people to be categorized. There is one who group is trying to stop or going through foreclosure. And there is another group who takes foreclosure as the best opportunity to do real estate investment.

No matter what category one falls in, everyone is aware about the scary and saddening part of foreclosure process. The foreclosure process is cruel and hard to believe. People who are in default in their mortgage payment lose their home in an overnight due to their imbalance financial status. Houses will get repossessed as it acts as collateral against the loan and banks will auction the property to the public to get their money back.

Foreclosure activities are growing rapidly throughout the country. People are getting panicked due to this situation and start thinking on the bad side of the economy. This is one way to think about this situation but there is always another way to think about this situation. This may be the good chance for investment. Foreclosures are happening all throughout the country and many good deals can be made out of it. The key thing in this scenario is to identify a good deal in this shaky market.

Most of the investors will go through the real estate listing where they will find list of all the foreclosed properties. Foreclosure listing will help to identify the condition of the property, tax history, exact location, loan information etc. You can easily access this information without having to go to the court house or the banks and pay a minimum surcharge for it.

You need to have a lot of skill in identifying a good deal in the foreclosure listing. Usually people will search a property in a wider scoop first. First they will search their kind of property in the state, then in that specific city and then scale down the search to the street name. The good deal comes where the foreclosure house is exactly located.

You can easily make a margin of 35% on the foreclosed house. Foreclosures are sold based on the remaining loan amount rather than the market price. Therefore, this is another consideration point in picking up a property. Try to find houses with lower debts owed. There are many theories about the foreclosure investments. It is easy to learn about the investment if you give a try. Browse through the internet and get more information. You may sign up one or 2 free trials of the real estate listings. You will get the feel of investing in foreclosure but do not get your head too hot as foreclosure investment does involve risk too. If you could make it for the investment, foreclosure will not be recession to you. Instead, a new stream of pipeline awaits you. Is foreclosure recession or a chance to invest? It varies people from people.