Reading reaction journal 5

Reading reaction journal 5

Reference:

Lsidore, C. (2010, April 21). No fob for years and still looking. CNN.com. Retrieved May 04, 2010 from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/21/news/economy/long_term_unemployment/index.htm

Summary:

In this article I read, a person has not been working for about two years. In an investigation report, 44% unemployed have not worked for over six months. This figure has never reached 24%. A woman has never imagined that she would be unemployed for over one year. She expected it to just be six to eight months. According to the article, they think that older workers over the age of 55 years old would have a longer time of being unemployed compared to workers between the age of 24 to 54 years old because older workers have stronger economic support to sustain their live longer than younger workers. A lot of companies also do not want to use older workers.
The long-term unemployment is still increasing as of now. This result is not surprising because the matter of unemployment has not got a solution yet. A lot of unemployed people who are looking for a job, had never thought that they would be unemployed for long time.

Reaction:

The matter of unemployment has existed for a long time and a lot of people still cannot find a job. They do not feel surprise because they are already accustomed to it. I think that unemployed people cannot find a job partly because of their age. Many unemployed people were unemployed in their middle age. This causes the average age of unemployed people to be high. Many companies also do not want to employ people who are middle age or older age, even if they have a lot of work experience. I think that companies do not want to employ older people because they will not work for a long time at the same company. They are likely to employ younger workers than older workers because young people are able to work for a longer time. Young workers also have more energy than older workers and I think this is normal. The government should create benefits for employment of older workers. If companies employ older workers, they are able to get some money to pay off some of the older workers’ salary. In the U.S the unemployed people would take up any job that come their way, but in Taiwan, the unemployed people are choosy when looking for a job. This is because they are particular about the terms and conditions of the job as well as the effect of the job on their health and well being. For example, factory jobs and jobs whereby workers have to rotate or work different shifts. However, there are people in Taiwan who would actually who take up any job no matter how low the pay is or how dangerous it is because, they are poor and need money badly.The government has to solve this matter because if this matter of unemployment is solved, it will solve other matters of society, for example, housing and mortgage. If we want to solve the current financial problems , we have to bring in a source of income for the people.

Reading reaction journal 4

Reading reaction journal 4

Reference:

Updegrave, W. (2010, April 15). In tough rimes, don’t give up on stocks. CNN.com. Retrieved April 26, 2010 from

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/15/pf/expert/stock_bonds_funds.moneymag/index.htm

Summary:

In the article I read, since two years ago many people look for excuses to hide their financial crisis. Their thought is to not touch stocks or fund of stock because a lot of banks were bankrupt in that year. The economy was on the verge of a meltdown. At that time, many people lost their money in stocks. In fact, stock had a run up of 70%. This leads people to believe that another trouble is going to start. Someone asked an expert a question regarding this matter. The expert answered the question and commented that it is not recommended to give up on stock funds. A lot of people almost change their invest form stock funds to bond funds because of money loss, making people feel uneasy. An important thing to note is how you should handle your investment in times of turbulence within the financial market.


Reaction:

A lot of people lost their money in the stock market two years ago because they believed that the stock would increase even more. Hence, they invested a lot of money on the stock market, but the result is uncontrollable, and they lost a lot of money, including myself. The financial crisis came in soon after stock run up to top. Therefore, this experience tend to make a lot of people feel uneasy because stock run up above 70% in March 2009. People worry that the stock market will go down again. The situation is like two years ago. Many people want to change their stock funds to bond funds because bond funds are much more safe than stock funds. Although bond funds are able to help you to save your money during financial crisis, but the interest is low. If you have some plans to save your money for your retirement, I would not recommend saving money in bond funds. You have to decide on an investment plan or look for someone to help you to decide.
I personally tend to invest in high risk investments when the stock market is in a bad shape because I believe that it would bring in higher return. However, professionals in this field would not approve of such a strategy because the risk is far too high. I would dabble in high risk investment in my country, Taiwan, but I would not do so in the U.S. This is possibly because I am more familiar with the Taiwan stock market than I am with the U.S stock market.
According to the article I read, we have to handle the financial market in times of turbulence, and to not guess oil crisis or financial crisis because a lot of companies still made money during the financial crisis and oil crisis but, a lot of companies were still in a state of bankruptcy when the economy was stable.