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AS I HAVE STATED AGAIN AND AGAIN, POOR PEOPLE ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE RETARDED AND NOW, PROOF THAT I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG.
ALL YOU POOR RETARDS OWE ME AN APOLOGY
More cases of depression, anxiety expected as credit crunch continuesBy Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 09 October 2008 1900 hrs
SINGAPORE: It's a jittery time for investors as global financial markets continue to spiral downwards.
In the United States, the murder-cum-suicide case of a former finance manager and his family serves as a grim reminder of the global crisis.
In Singapore, financial and mental health counsellors said they expect to see more cases of depression and anxiety in the months ahead.
Banker-turned-counsellor, Dr Wolff von Auer, who went through the last financial crisis of 1997, is already getting calls from worried clients.
Dr Auer, president of the International Association of Counsellors & Therapists in Singapore, said: "It's anger, frustration and stress. Stress about what to do.
"It's a little bit like a rabbit in front of a snake – you don't know what to do. Should I run? Should I fight? And this can change very easily into a kind of depression."
Counsellors said the groups that are most at risk would be the middle class and those who invest in high-risk instruments made worse by the liquidity crisis.
In the US, mental health counsellors are reportedly on alert for calls from people who are depressed or possibly suicidal after a former Los Angeles finance manager shot dead five members of his family before killing himself.
The situation is not so dire in Singapore if figures from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Credit Bureau are anything to go by.
The country's bad debt situation has improved slightly in the first half of the year, with a smaller percentage of credit card revolvers and bad debts written off by banks.
While the percentage of delinquent credit card account holders has gone up slightly from 1.21 per cent in July 2007 to 1.39 per cent in June 2008, the number of credit card revolvers has actually gone down slightly from 38.14 per cent to 37.94 per cent of some 1 million credit card holders during the same period.
The percentage of bad debts written off by banks also dropped slightly from 4.1 per cent in June 2007 to 3.5 per cent in June 2008. However, observers said that was on the back of a good economy last year.
Kuo How Nam, president of Credit Counselling Singapore, said: "If there is a recession and if the recession affects jobs and income, then we will expect to see a surge of people getting into trouble.
"After the SARS period for example, we had people coming in who lost money when their businesses failed or when they suffered stock market losses, so I would expect them to show up."
Amid the economic uncertainties, latest government figures showed Singapore's unemployment rate has gone up for the second consecutive quarter to 2.3 per cent in June.
- CNA/so
ALL YOU POOR RETARDS OWE ME AN APOLOGY
More cases of depression, anxiety expected as credit crunch continuesBy Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 09 October 2008 1900 hrs
SINGAPORE: It's a jittery time for investors as global financial markets continue to spiral downwards.
In the United States, the murder-cum-suicide case of a former finance manager and his family serves as a grim reminder of the global crisis.
In Singapore, financial and mental health counsellors said they expect to see more cases of depression and anxiety in the months ahead.
Banker-turned-counsellor, Dr Wolff von Auer, who went through the last financial crisis of 1997, is already getting calls from worried clients.
Dr Auer, president of the International Association of Counsellors & Therapists in Singapore, said: "It's anger, frustration and stress. Stress about what to do.
"It's a little bit like a rabbit in front of a snake – you don't know what to do. Should I run? Should I fight? And this can change very easily into a kind of depression."
Counsellors said the groups that are most at risk would be the middle class and those who invest in high-risk instruments made worse by the liquidity crisis.
In the US, mental health counsellors are reportedly on alert for calls from people who are depressed or possibly suicidal after a former Los Angeles finance manager shot dead five members of his family before killing himself.
The situation is not so dire in Singapore if figures from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Credit Bureau are anything to go by.
The country's bad debt situation has improved slightly in the first half of the year, with a smaller percentage of credit card revolvers and bad debts written off by banks.
While the percentage of delinquent credit card account holders has gone up slightly from 1.21 per cent in July 2007 to 1.39 per cent in June 2008, the number of credit card revolvers has actually gone down slightly from 38.14 per cent to 37.94 per cent of some 1 million credit card holders during the same period.
The percentage of bad debts written off by banks also dropped slightly from 4.1 per cent in June 2007 to 3.5 per cent in June 2008. However, observers said that was on the back of a good economy last year.
Kuo How Nam, president of Credit Counselling Singapore, said: "If there is a recession and if the recession affects jobs and income, then we will expect to see a surge of people getting into trouble.
"After the SARS period for example, we had people coming in who lost money when their businesses failed or when they suffered stock market losses, so I would expect them to show up."
Amid the economic uncertainties, latest government figures showed Singapore's unemployment rate has gone up for the second consecutive quarter to 2.3 per cent in June.
- CNA/so
