According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, ‘luxuriate’ is the action of growing profusely, developing extensively and/or indulging oneself and deriving great enjoyment from the luxury and comfort that “it” offers. The recent financial storm that started from the breakdown of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and erupted in the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers goes to show the sphere of influence of globalization and the inevitability that a change in American’s well-being is able to upset the rest of the world.

“A financial crisis unmatched since the Great Depression”, Larry Elliott, economics edit for The Guardian. For a non-economics academic and student to understand the entire process of the Credit Derivative system that resulted in the mess we are in today is not an easy feat. On March 17, 2008 Alan Greenspan wrote an article for the Financial Times' Economists’ Forum entitled “We will never have a perfect model of risk” in which he argued: “We will never be able to anticipate all discontinuities in financial markets.” He concluded: “It is important, indeed crucial, that any reforms in, and adjustments to, the structure of markets and regulation not inhibits our most reliable and effective safeguards against cumulative economic failure: market flexibility and open competition.” The pervasiveness of globalization is apparent; the immense instability in the United States has perturbed many countries in the World, such as Iceland, United Kingdom, Sweden, and Ireland. Even in Asia, China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are also severely impacted; governments were obliged to bail-out or to pledge the national reserves as a guarantee for the Banks.

At this moment, Mr Barack Hussein Obama is pretty much confirmed as the 44th President of the United States of America. The Republican candidate, John McCain, has congratulated and conceded to Obama in a telephone conversation. In being voted into the highest office in the USA, Obama makes history by being the first "black American" to be president.

The term “black American”, along with other permutations such as first "African-American president", first "minority President" or first "non-white president" were bandied about readily by the thousands of articles covering the election. It makes me wonder, because Obama was born of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, effectively making him half-white and half-black. Why did the media, and pretty much everyone else, choose to focus on his black heritage? Perhaps the issue of race has not been put to rest completely, despite Obama's historic win.

Mr Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, affectionately known as JBJ, passed away on the morning of 30 September 2008 at the age of 82. (A report on this can be viewed here). His funeral saw a steady stream of people who went to pay their last respects, including High Court judges Chao Hick Tin and Kan Ting Chiu, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zainul Abidin Rasheed, opposition MP for Potong Pasir Chiam See Tong and PAP MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC Indranee Rajah. President Nathan, SM Goh and PM Lee sent their condolences as well.

Putting reasons aside, the credit crunch has led inexorably to a startup smash. Startups in the US are affected sorely, visibly by the financial meltdown, though it seems like Europe, though dented, has less affected areas to show. Let’s see how startups and venture capital firms are reacting.

On Oct 8th, 2008, the angel investor Ron Conway advised his companies on their retreat strategies during the credit crunch. Not that he is losing confidence; having promised to keep investing, he is just describing how to prepare storm provisions. On the same day Sequoia Capital sent an erudite 56 slide presentation to its portfolio company’s CEO’s, mentioning the huge US foreign debt, the US consumer having barely enough to spend (they call it a low disposable personal income) and corporate earnings in Silicon Valley down by 18 percent. No one seems to have much money, and that makes venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital worry a lot: their presentation ends: Get Real, Go Home. Benchmark Capital put up its own storm warning signs a day later, telling it’s companies to get ‘tight control of their finances’, which, seems like jargon for keep the cash under the floorboards. So much for the top.

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