Number of layoffs since Nov. 1, 2008, at America's 500 largest public companies

104,365

Date	Company1	Total Laid Off2	Industry
12/2/2008	United States Steel	4,175	Materials
12/01/2008	JPMorgan Chase	9,200	Banking
12/01/2008	PepsiCo	87	Food
11/25/2008	Dana Holding	50	Durables
11/24/2008	BlackRock	10	Financials
11/21/2008	Berkshire Hathaway	215	Finance
11/21/2008	International Paper	550	Materials
11/21/2008	Western Union	200	Business Services
11/20/2008	Bank of New York Mellon	1,800	Banking
11/20/2008	Whirlpool	100	Durables
11/20/2008	Boeing	800	Aerospace
11/19/2008	General Motors	5,758	Durables
11/18/2008	Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold	600	Materials
11/17/2008	Citigroup	53,000	Banking
11/14/2008	Sun Microsystems	6,000	Technology
11/12/2008	Applied Materials	1,800	Technology
11/12/2008	Las Vegas Sands	11,000	Leisure
11/12/2008	Morgan Stanley	2,000	Finance
11/12/2008	Liberty Media	910	Retailing
11/12/2008	Textron	665	Conglomerates
11/11/2008	AK Steel Holding	800	Materials
11/7/2008	Ford Motor	2,600	Durables
11/6/2008	Mattel	1,000	Household
11/6/2008	MGM Mirage	400	Leisure
11/6/2008	Omnicom Group	145	Media
11/4/2008	Hartford Financial Services Group	500	Finance

(Source: http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/17/layoff-tracker-unemployement-lead-cx_kk_1118tracker.html)


My take on this:

That's the current layoff that has occurred in the US alone.

More information on the layoffs since November fro the companies. Apparently the largest layoffs came from Citigroup, one of the largest banking organization. US is already in a recession since December 2007, and if this continues on until second quarter 2009, it will be one of the longest recession period since the Great Depression. The other economies officially in recession currently: Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Britain.

I don't know about you, but to say Malaysia is 'shielded' (as mentioned by some ministers) from the impact and hiccups of the current world situation is undermining and being delusional to say the least.

Next year will be an 'interesting' year, especially for banking/insurance/retail and real estate in Malaysia. For the opportunists, it is a great time to do some smart investing (buy low prices, wait, and sell high) and let 'time' does its magic, although most will be very conservative. As cliche as it sounds, Warren Buffett's "Be brave when others are fearful, and be fearful when others are brave" holds a true ring. Coupled that with a bit of intelligence, patience and logical (not emotional) investing, I believe the strategy will bear its fruits when the market is up again.

Happy investing and carpe diem!

-Ray-