Global Economic Crisis & It's Impact On Australia

Welcome!

Hello, G'Day, Bon Jour - how ever you say it, welcome to a website about the Global Economic Crisis & mostly about it's impact on Australia.

This website is actually one of a few tasks that were required to be completed in an Humanities assignment, which was a 'free choice' assignment though the topic has to relate back to Poltics.

So without anything else to do, we hope you enjoy reading & posting comments on the content on the website - don't forget to look on your right for the latest news on the Global Economic Crisis & videos from YouTube!

Activity List

Here is a list on how the two of us divided up our activities for this assignment:

Jeff: Website building & design, essay, ad's & acrostic poem (along with putting together assignment).

Josh: Letter & forum along with helping out on the essay, ad's & acrostic poem.

Both: Writing problem & solutions for the assignment.

Problem

Quote from our essay which explains in detail, what caused the Global Economic Crisis to begin & who were the first victims of the crisis:

“The traces of the Global Economic Crisis can go as far back as 2007 & the
downfall of the $8 trillion dollar bubble in the US housing market – pre-2007,
there was a housing boom & more & more houses were being built, because
there was demand for more houses. Though in 2007, the housing boom led to an
over-supply of houses, meaning housing prices started to go down-hill & in
turn, many people had to walk away from their mortgages & let the banks
seize control of their houses (as they couldn’t afford to keep paying the
mortgage off).

One of the first banks to fall victim of the crisis
was an UK bank called Northern Rock which in September 2007, asked the Bank of
England for protection – this lead to a bank run, where people lined outside the
banks branches to withdraw their money (basically, it was an consumer &
investor panic). It wasn’t for nearly another year before the ‘domino effect’
started to happen in the United States, when in one day (September 7th) -
IndyMac Bank (the largest mortgage lender in America), Fannie Mae & Freddie
Mac – all banks, all collapsed & went into government ownerships
(after the American government took over them). A week later (on September
14th), Lehman Brothers filled for bankruptcy, Bank of America brought out
Merrill Lynch (one of the largest banks in America) & AIG (American
International Group) suffered a credit crisis, which could have effected
insurance policies around the world, luckily it didn’t after an emergency
package from the American Government which bailed it out.”

So basically what happened was, when the housing boom in 2007 ended & banks started to take control of houses (after people walked away from their mortgages), traders were worried about the economy going into a free-fall about the ‘housing bubble’ bursting & due to this, some banks will go into a bankrupt & be forced to shut – their worries were realised in September 2008, when a whole amount of large banks collapsed & most had to go into government ownership.

Solutions

We think that there are many different solutions to try & fix the Global Economic Crisis - below are some of the solutions we think can fix the problem:

The Australian Government needs to continue to putting in measures (such as the stimulus packages) so that our (Australia's) economy stays stable & we don't head towards a recession/depression.
The Australian Government needs to have a meeting with the managers of all of the major banks, so that they can organise plans so that our money remains safe in banks (so we don't see scenes like we saw in England last year, when people stormed Northern Rock after reports that the bank was about to collapsed).
Shops & major retailers need have major sales/clearances & promotions if people buy more so that people will be encouraged to buy heaps of things (in turn, boosting the Australian economy) & in turn, will buy more items to receive the promotional items/gifts.

A paragraph from our essay about the effects the Global Economic Crisis is having on Australia, which explains in more detail, different solutions to the crisis (including one idea not talked about above):

Firstly the government needs to keep doing everything in their power to avoid a
recession happening in Australia to continuing to boost the economy (with things
such as the cash hand-outs) & to continue to talk to banks, to make sure
that our banks can cope with the effects of a recession (if it happens in
Australia). Meanwhile, as explained before, with earlier cash hand-outs – people
are just not spending them. The Reserve Bank of Australia needs to cut interest
rates as much as they can, so that people who are on mortgages will not be so
worried to spend a bit more money then what they would if the interest rates
were higher. Finally, we can all do our bit to boost the economy by simply
shopping & buying a little bit more then what we normally would do –
basically our economy stays stable by people spending money, so if we continue
to spend money (& buying a little bit extra) then our economy should be able
to fight off an recession threat.

Review - Business Channels

EXCLUSIVE: In America, there are two business channels which fight it out against each other for viewers - here in Australia we get access to both of these channels, so I decided to watch the two channels to see how each channel is reporting the Global Economic Crisis.

Fox Business: When I first think of Fox Business, I almost straight away think of Fox News & it's left-wing bias (would be a Labor bias in Australia), though to the channels credit - it has stayed away from the bias issue. Some of their anchors are really good (Neil Cavuto & Alexis Glick) & since the Global Economic Crisis, it has started broadcasting live on Saturday morning between 10am & 2pm ET (something CNBC doesn't do, instead stay's in taped programming) answering viewers questions. Though the one thing that bugs me about FBN is simply the lack of talent, we're talking about a Global Economic Crisis & if you only have reporters in America, you can't really report the rest of the picture. 8/10

CNBC: CNBC has been around since way before I was born & since then, has grown into having different international versions of the channel & changing as viewers demanded more & more. Looking at the talent list & there's plenty of great anchors & programs (Maria Bartiromo & Erin Burnett are the names that comes into most people's minds), though the problem I had with talent with Fox Business, isn't the same with CNBC - they have anchor teams in Europe & Asia with shows broadcasting from the two regions broadcasting overnights, giving an international view on the markets. The one problem I have with CNBC is that their tradition of broadcasting taped programming - while that would have been fine a few years ago, when you got your rival broadcasting live & you're still in taped programming, you should aim to fix it ASAP. 9/10

Result: While it was a close race, CNBC wins it with simply their anchor teams in Europe & Asia, giving American viewers an international view on the economic crisis.