All You Need to Know about the Economic Recession

Economic Recession Survival Guide – Click Here

Invoice factoring can help assist companies manage cash flow, expand increase their business, purchase pay for new machinery and stock, or even merge with or acquireobtain a new company. For many companies, customer debt can be the largest main asset on the balance sheet, often representing indicative of two or three months’ worth of sales.

Invoice Factoring can help companies struggling with slow-paying customers clients by allowing them to borrowhave access to money against invoices issued. It is sometimes calledreferred to as full-service factoring, because the factor takes over all credit managementsupervision and collections work, to ensure make certain speedier customer payments and chase track bad debts. These can also slash the company’s in-house administration costs.

The factor pays as much as 80 to 90 per cent of the value of the invoice. When the customer pays, the company receives the balance. This allows the company to borrow money without having to secure the loan on any assets, while allowing its borrowings to grow develop in line with sales. Factoring services typically cost between 0.75 and 2.25 per cent of turnover, plus interest on the cash advance. For many companies, this is a price worth paying.

Invoice factoring companies can also provide offer a speedy injectionaddition of funds. Extra cash flow can turn a company’s affluence round in a week, giving it the money to make essential payments to keymain suppliers.

Factoring is sometimes described as a flexible loan, which a company can draw down everytime it issues a new invoice. That kind of flexibility is key crucial in the current marketplace with overdrafts more difficult to obtain.

Interest rates on the cash advance are similarcomparable to rates on a secured overdraft, but facility service charges are usually more expensive costly, however you can realise attain three times the amount of money for your business. If a business urgently needs money to put recruit a member of staff to sell more products or take advantage of a supplier special offer, invoice finance can be extremelyparticularly effective.

Although factors provide offer valuable services, companies are sometimes wary cautious about using them. A possible problem drawback with factoring is that the intervention involvement of the factor between the factor’s client and the debtor company could endanger jeopardize trading relationships and damage goodwill. Customers might prefer to deal with the business and not the factor. In this instance Confidential Invoice Discounting may be a better solution. As collections are handled by the business and are confidential

Also ending ceasing a factoring arrangement can be difficult, because a business must either switchchange to another factor or buy back its sales ledger from the factor. This will cost money and in short will result in more debtors and the risk of a shortfall in cash flow and liquidity.

Invoice Factoring forms part of the Asset Based lending sector of commercial finance along with Asset Refinance and leasing. For more information please contact

There are important factors that caused this economic slowdown. These include the high oil prices which will lead to high prices of food. Since food production is dependent on the production process and transportation process on oil.

This will be combined with the credit crisis and an increase in unemployment. As early as January of 2008, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) already predicted that global economic growth will decline. It would be greatly affected by the United Stated Economy.

The IMF mentioned that the economic recession in the United States will be affected greatly by the financial market conditions and the continuing correction in the U.S. housing market. IMF predicted that the United States will have a mild recession in 2008 but will recover, although modest, in 2009.

Meanwhile, global growth would achieve little recovery in 2009, there is a 25 percent chance that the global economy would record 3 percent or less of growth in 2008 and 2009. This is already like saying that the world will encounter a recession. United Nations has also predicted the same thing to happen.

According to UN, the world economy growth was remarkable in 2007. There are more than 100 economies tat reported to have an increase of 3 percent. Meanwhile, developing countries are also showing promises. The economic growth average in developing countries was almost 70 percent.

But UN Conference on Trade and Development stated that there is clear disaster or danger for the world economy to standstill in 2008. The UN report stated that this economic standstill will hit many poor nations and would definitely end the boom in economic growth. The United States economic decline on 2008 will greatly affect the global economy. Being one of the largest economy in the world. Some reckless practices has brought the looming recession in the United States; no down payment, no verification of income/ assets/ jobs, interest rate mortgages, negative amortization, and teaser rates.

Approximately 50 to 60 percent of the loans made in the banks were done through these reckless practices. Economic recessions are not only distinct in the United States. European countries are also getting affected by economic slowdown. Denmark was confirmed to be in a recession. The economic growth in Denmark declined by 0.6 percent in the first quarter of the year. While Estonia and Latvia both entered recession in the second quarter of the year. While Sweden showed zero growth in the second water of 2008. The British economy is also being hit by rising oils prices and credit crisis.

Telltale signs that the British economy is entering recession, when the housing market fell in 2007. In the next quarter, the housing market went down twice its former figure. Currently the economic growth in United Kingdom is zero. This would be next to the negative economic growth that happened in second quarter of 1992. The current slowdown has ended 16 years of continuous economic growth, the longest period of economic expansion in Britain since the 19th century.

Economic crisis is also happening in New Zealand whose economy?s growth declined by 0.3 percent. Meanwhile in Australia, consumer confidence fell into a 16 year low economic growth in July. South Africa is being warned that it will enter a recession by this year. Japan has experienced a drop in economic growth, the first time in five years. Meanwhile, Canada?s economic growth has shrank in the first quarter of the year.

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The United States has been experiencing economic recession since early of the year 2008. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are also at risk of facing economic recession for the next 12 months. While Canada, Britain and Japan may foresee a recession in their economy in the future.

With all this recession risks, ordinary people, could not help but wonder what exactly is an economic recession.

The economic cycle is that when an economy is strong, people are employed and earning. There will be a great demand for outputs like food, electronics, vehicles and other products. The production will increase until it exceeds the actual demand. This would create a rise in prices or inflation.

Salary would then have difficulty accommodating the rising prices of products. The prices will be too expensive for consumers, that they will stop buying or sales would not increase. When the demand decreases, companies will lay off workers creating a large population of unemployed work force.

These are several signs of an economic recession. Decline in housing prices, decline in the stock market, and business expansion plans being put on hold are also signs of a recession.

According to the United States National Bureau of Economic Research, it is “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”

Economic recession is a contraction phase of the business cycle. The common definition for recession is that there is a relative decline in a country?s gross domestic product or GDP. Having a negative real economic growth for two or more successive quarters is also a telltale sign for economic recession.

Gross domestic product is the market value of all the products and services produced in a region or commonly, country, in a year. GDP is the total output of the economy. GDP is measured every quarter. Since the gross domestic product or the output is declining. There is less need for people who are creating the product. Firms and companies will sever their ties with several employees resulting to unemployment.

A severe or long recession could be an economic depression. The difference between recession and depression is when the GDP is declining by 10%, that means what the economy is experiencing is already depression. A short ?lived recession is often called economic correction.

Based on the definition of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), recession can last ?more than a few months.? Therefore, an official announcement that a country or region is experiencing recession can only be made after economic decline for six months. Typically, a normal economic recession lasts for approximately one year.

Periodic recessions are part of a country?s or region?s economy. According to Tom Harris (How Recession Works), the United States has an economic pattern. The United States economy will expand for six until ten years and then enter a recession for about six months or two years. The start of the recession is called the peak, end of recession if trough. Meanwhile the period of time between two peaks or two recessions is called the business cycle.

NBER, a private, non profit research organization studies the American economy. The Business Cycle Dating Committee maintains the chronology of business cycle. They also decides whether the economy is in recession or expansion

Economists may argue with the definition of an economic recession. They may even debate whether the United States, specifically is experiencing an economic downturn. But it is not only the economists who can decide and identify an economic downfall, it is the ordinary people who can readily identify economic growth and demise.

Your Recession Survival Guide

Your business will surely be affected during an economic recession. If you don?t find ways to make it ride out the storm, chances are you will have to file for bankruptcy and close. Fortunately, there are things you can do to keep it afloat.

Remember that the heart of every business is customer service. If you give special treatment to your customers, these people will leave feeling satisfied and always come back. This is something that your employees must understand because if they don?t, these individuals will be the first one to go since you have to cut back on your expenses.

One way of doing that is to reeducate your employees. You can hold seminars on customer service or simply give them a refresher course of the products and services that you are offering because this will impress the customer the moment they walk in through the door.

You should also motivate them because good morale always achieves positive results. Being the owner of the business, you should lead by example by rendering longer hours at work. If they see you are doing whatever it takes to stay afloat, they will do the same because again, their jobs are on the line and they could be dismissed if things get worse.

Most businesses think that letting people go is always the first option. You don?t have to make the same mistake when these reductions can be made elsewhere as long as quality is not compromised. If you have to buy things, see if you can get longer credit periods or better rates so large expenses can become smaller ones making it easy to manage.

It is always nice to have customers pay in cash but during an economic recession, that is hard for the consumer so if you don?t use a credit card machine yet, now will be a good time to get one. Studies have shown that more people will be able to buy from you using a credit card especially during a time of financial downturn.

The objective of any business is to make money so part of surviving an economic recession will be also to lower your profit margins. By informing your customers of this move, they will be able to buy more at a very reasonable price. You can raise prices again when things get better since such a crisis is only temporary.

Instead of relying on people coming through your door, you can also look at other ways to promote your business. One of the most affordable ones to date is the internet so create your own website. If you can?t do this on your own, hire someone to do it and then make sure that is it both attractive and interactive.

Other businesses are also feeling the crunch and they are also doing their best to stay afloat. Ask around what they are doing and share the same information as well so you will have other ideas and options when the ones you have right now are not working.

We are not yet out of the woods in the recent economic recession. A lot of people are still losing their jobs and their homes, which is why it is important for you to take the steps mentioned rather than doing nothing and hoping for a miracle.

  The Economic Advisor 

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Your Recession Survival Guide

Economic recession not only affects those who belong in the working class or the generation involved in labor. Children and the youth are getting affected by economic recession and poverty so much, that these children sometimes never acts their age or sometimes so insecure of their surroundings.

According to the United Nations World Youth report, youth (with ages 18- 24 years old) is 18 percent of the world population. Meanwhile, the youth is also 25 percent of working age population. Last 2007, there were more than 1.2 billion people in the world who belonged to this age group.

Youth are two to three times more likely than adults to be unemployed. The situation is particularly critical for young women, who suffer higher rates of unemployment than young men in the majority of economies. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), youth in both industrialized and developing countries are more likely to be working long hours, on short-term contracts, low pay and with little or no social protection at all.

Youth who enter the workforce with limited prospects, like underdeveloped and inadequate education, have the high probability of facing unemployment, whether it is short or long term, intermittent spells of unemployment and low- wage jobs.

There are more than1 billion youth people aged between15 to 24 are unemployed. A large percentage (85 percent) would be from developing countries. There are 160 million people unemployed globally right now, according to ILO, and nearly 40 percent of this number comes from the youth sector.

Most of the employed youth would be working with short term employment. The casualisation or contractualisation of the youth sector or making the youth work shorter terms affects the benefits or social protection they get from employers. This explains why many of the employed youth are working without or little protection.

Most of the world?s youth are working in the informal economy. In Latin America, almost all newly created jobs employing youth are in the informal economy. While in Africa, 93 percent of all new jobs are also informal. Workers in informal sectors usually work long hours, low pay, with poor working conditions. They don?t have access to social protection or benefits and any freedom for associations, organizations or unions and collective bargaining.

There are also recession effects on the college students. During recessions, the economic out put is decreasing. What the government do is that they reduce taxes, while increasing the government safety net on spending. Because of this, education budgets were harder to make.

These government safety net on spending, constraints the daily education of the students. Course offerings, programs, and student activities may suffer budget cuts as programs compete for less education funds. Funding opportunities for student loans, scholarships, school employment, and aid may also weaken. During budget cuts, less education budget will lead to higher tuition fees to finance the missing funds. This case is particularly true for state subsidized institutions and public schools.

Due to poverty and difficult times, there are numbers showing that the youth are forced to enter low-paid and high risk jobs with little social protection. Faced with poverty and better job opportunities, our youth are forced to gamble their health and physical strength.

There can be numerous ways for an economic recession to deeply cut on our youth. There is a large number of young people currently unemployed, and unemployment greatly affects even the attitude of our youth. Unemployment can to marginalization, exclusion, frustration and even low-esteem.

It is important to save our youth from the impeding crises. Establishing youth employment policies and sound economic policies are great ways to start it.

Economic recession is gripping the United States right now and people just don’t know what to do about it. In truth, economic recession isn?t something new anymore. In fact, it has been happening all through out the decades. People don’t just know about it because it has not been as widely publicized as now. This is perhaps because of the ongoing political race between the Republican and the Democrat. And mayhap also because, the country has never experienced such downturn in economy than now, with losses in the real estate, banking and insurance sectors.

Economic recession is actually a term used to refer to the slowing down or downturn of the economy after a period of upturn. You can better picture it with a cycle that often turns. Economy is sometimes rosy and bullish but after a period of progress, it will slow down and become bearish as what they use in the stock market.

The cycle of economy

Often, economic recession is not a problem as the government’s financial sectors have solutions for it. One of the most common is tax cuts where the government gives up a portion of their income and gives it back to the people so that they will have money to buy goods. When consumerism becomes good again, companies who lost a lot of money during the period of downturn and low demand will regain their losses. This will lead to the hiring of new people and increasing their production. More supply in the market will lead to lower prices which will hopefully encourage higher demand for products. Thus, ending the recession.

Easier said than done

It is however easier said than done. Sometimes even with tax cuts, the government cannot balance the economy. This is especially true if the country do not have much budget to augment the situation or if there have been occurrences that are outside their control.

For instance, the problems in the real estate industry and near bankruptcy of a lending firm associated with properties are not exactly brought on alone by economic recession. Problems in the company way way back have contributed to its losses, only aggravated by the current economic situation. The same goes with the problems two major banks in the United States is experiencing right now and also the losses that are beginning to show from the portfolio of a multinational insurance and financial firm.

All these are not all the fault of economic recession. However, what is happening to their company is made much worse by the economic downturn as people will not spend as much. Because of the hard times, some will not also be able to pay their loans or pay off their mortgages like before. If a company has a solid money background, it will not matter as its assets can absorb the losses. Unfortunately, if a company is already suffering from problems even before economic recession can make it bankrupt.

Although economic recession is basically something that happens to a country, individuals are affected not only in the country where it is happening but also worldwide. This is especially true if the company has interest worldwide or the currency is being used all over the world. There is however not much that people can do except take a calming breath and just take one day at a time, hoping it will all come to an end soon.

Economic recession and depressions are well known to bring about depression and suicidal risks. There are stories of businessmen jumping out of windows following the stock-market crash of 1929.

Unknown to many, people who commits suicide in the wake of economic recessions and financial crises are not individuals with pre-existing mental illnesses. They are commonly middle-aged men in the verge of debt and bankruptcy.

About sixty percent of suicides in 2006 (worldwide) happen in the Asia Pacific region. In Japan, Sri Lanka, and some parts of China report that more than 20 out of 100,000 citizens kill themselves each year. More than twice as many in Australia and New Zealand.

It is also relatively higher in places where it is culturally accepted like in Japan and India. When several countries in Asia- Pacific were hit by an economic crisis in mid- 1990s, there was a relative increase in the number of suicides among middle-aged men. This group were said to be the most affected group by the economic recession.

Aside from economic factors being a reason for suicide, it also has to do something with the Asian values in terms of shame and humiliation not being able to provide for the family.

In Asian culture, loss of face or shame is take more seriously than it is in Western culture. In Japan, there are samurais that took their own lives to avoid disgrace after a defeat. They call this tradition hara-kiri. There are some corporate executives who have done the hara-kiri tradition in the eve of an economic decline. A stretch of forest in Mount Fuji is called ?the suicide forest? due to dozens of bodies retrieved from it every year.

Economic recession has great effects on the youth and children, poverty and financial difficulties have pushed them towards suicide. In Israel in 2003, a 15 year old killed himself when their electricity has been cut. In the suicide note, the teen-ager mentioned that he does not want to be a burden for his mother who raised him as a single parent.

In the Philippines back in 2007, an 11 year old girl ended her life because of poverty. In her suicide note, she wished that her parents will have a stable job and that her siblings would be able to go to school regularly. This incident drew attention towards the poverty programs the government has in the country.

Governments and concerned institutions globally are taking steps to address this issue.

An example would be the steps being undertaken by the Japanese government. Some new measures are changing work patterns to allow more flexibility and funding early detection and treatment programs.

The Japanese government are also providing better mental health counselling at the workplace, networks of community psychiatrists and public campaigns to raise the awareness of the problem. Telephone hot line services are also readily available. There is a new software being developed to filter out websites that promote group suicides.
Australia, in Asia-Pacific, is the first country to initiate the prevention of web based suicide groups.

Aside from government efforts, there are personal ways you can do to help a suicidal person:

1. A suicidal person is carrying a burden that they can?t handle anymore. Listening is important.

2. Be sympathetic, non- judgemental, patient, calm and understanding.

3. Avoid trying to offer quick solutions by belittling the person?s feelings.

4. Dealing with a suicide threat is stressful. Seek assistance o decompress afterwards.

5. If personal efforts fails, don?t blame yourself. It is the person?s choice. It is wise to ask for grief counselling and suicide survivor support groups.

Economic recession may be a new term in your ears but in essence, it is actually a common economic term used to refer to the slowing down of economy. You see, a country’s economy follows a natural cycle. Sometimes it’s up and sometimes it’s down. You just don’t realize that it’s happening because it has not gone this bad since the wall street crash decades before. Now, United States is feeling the heat once again with the rising costs of living and transportation as well as the crash of the real estate industry and just recently the crash of the top banks in the US.

During these times, all you can do is to hope and pray that you will still be able to keep your job and survive the recession until everything is ok again. To do this, you need to save up and make sure that you are ready for every eventuality. Here are some tips on how to deal with every American’s concern right now.

1. Be prepared

What you know cannot kill you. There is nothing wrong and being prepared for potential problems. Even if right now, you don’t have any problems financially, it pays to get ready for the coming challenges. You can do this by saving up some money and putting them in the bank. That way, you can use something for the rainy day.

Think of other ways that you can be prepared and plan around it. Look at your expenses every month and check where you can cut off the extras. With them side by side, you will know just where you are overbudgeting. This is also an excellent way to plan and save for future expenses like for instance, your children’s tuition fees.

2. Save with your consumption

Another way to do this is to make sure that you will be spending less for the household. You can do this by cutting expenses that are not necessary like in luxury items such as clothes, entertainment, trips. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. Only purchase the items that you know you will be using.

You should also save with your consumption of electricity, gas and water as these are areas that you may not notice you are overbudgeting but usually you are. For instance, ironing clothes piece by piece and not by bulk consumes more electricity. The same goes with leaving the door open when the airconditioning unit is turned on. Always make sure that you turn off the TV after watching it or to be sure, purchase a unit that has a programmable on and off button that you can use. There are also airconditioning models and heaters that you can buy that have this feature.

3. Don?t panic

Economic recession as mentioned to you is a cycle and usually it will have an end. There is no need to feel panicky and feel that all hope is already lost. The more that you feel the panic, the more problems you will have because panic can make you do things without thinking about it or make you so nervous you will be mentally blocked out. So just ride the waves and go with the flow. You’ll never even feel that it’s there.

Economic recession may be a normal part of the economic cycle but this does not mean that it is easy dealing with it. In fact, a lot of people have already been burned by this problem in the United States. Times are tough in the country and more and more people are feeling the heat of impoverishment.

With the problems in the real estate industry and the job losses that have occurred all throughout the country, more and more people are getting worried about what will happen to them. Essentially, if you have a stable job, it will not be a problem for you. But this does not mean of course that you should just waste away and not do anything about it. All people will be affected one way or the other. It is how we deal with the problem that will determine survival. So how do we survive in times of economic recession? Here are some of the ways.

1. Be aware of it
Forewarned is Forearmed. That mean that when you know something is about to happen, you are already in a way prepared for it. So be aware of what is happening to the country. Know what’s going on. Only by gathering information about the recession can you know how to better deal with it.

2. Save up
One of the best ways to stay stable in times of the economic recession is to save your money and to spend wisely. This is not to suggest that you don’t spend at all and just put everything in the bank. As much as you can, save some money in the bank. You will be able to need this should an emergency happen.

3. Avoid wastage
This is actually one component of saving up. When you save, you make sure that everything that you have bought have been used and have not been wasted. You can start on the dinner table by asking your kids to clean their plates when eating. That way, they will know that they will be forced to eat whatever they got but cannot eat. Alongside this edict, tell them they can get a second helping should they want another but still, they have to clean their plates. No leftovers.

4. Get your family to help
Dealing with economic recession and making sure that the family survives is the responsibility of every member of the family. Even in their own way, your kids can help out by making sure that they are not wasting food or not wasting electricity or water which contributes a lot in the overall household expense monthly. They can do this by making sure that everything is shut off when they leave the room. TVs should not be left open when there is no one watching. Same goes with airconditioning unit and heaters.

5. Get your neighbors to help
You are not the only one feeling the pressure brought on by economic recession. A lot of families in the United States are also scrimping right now just to make both ends meet. Join hands with them and work together. For instance, you can all save gas by getting your kids to school in a car pool. You can all take turns on the wheel. This will also free you to do other things like maybe work part time to supplement the family income.

A country’s economy is a cycle. Sometimes it’s at the top and sometimes it?s below. Being at the lower part of the cycle is what you may have heard and read over and over again in televisions and newspapers as economic recession.

An economic recession is characterized by weakening business environment where there is low demand and in turn lower production. Most of the time, this results to a high inflation rate, which in lay man’s term is the lowering of the value of one’s money. This happens because of the rising costs of food and other retail items in the country. The same number of items that you can buy with for instance a hundred dollars will not be the same as number of items that you used that with years ago.

An economic recession, when it charges forth without any intervention can wreak havoc in a country’s overall economic health. It can lead to the loss of jobs, closure of businesses and rising costs of living. This is what the United States is currently feeling right now. 2008 has not been a good year for the country with large losses in its real estate industry as well as in other business sectors. Many lost their jobs and had their homes foreclosed because of non-payment of monthly fees. The country is also feeling the burden of skyrocketing oil prices as well as food and living costs.

With the United States as one of the main driving forces of global economy, their slowdown is felt all over the world. Countries which they have business interests have also suffered economic slow downs. The dollar which is being used in transactions all over the world is also weakening, affecting people who have either invested in the American currency or those who use it for their business. Often, in this scenario, those who are in the export business are affected by this as they are given dollars as payment for the products that they manufacture.

But don’t get worried. Although the economic recession may seem hard to deal with, it is not impossible to do. In fact when you really think about it, the whole family can actually do their part in saving during these economic recession times. Here are some ways:

1. Involve the whole family
You are not only one who should be saving during these hard times. Doing this should actually be something that the whole family should be doing. This way, you can be sure that everyone is pulling their weight. Saving as a family will also help keep the family closer in this hard times.

2. Explain the situation
You may not realize it but young children are actually smarter than they let on. When they are given a clear explanation, they will understand the situation and will even act on their own volition. You don’t have to constantly remind them or order them about. Explaining the situation will also allow your kids to feel that they are needed and that they can do something significant for the family. As young as they are, they also like to feel that they are needed.

3. Be a role model
Asking your children and other family members to save up when you are not is a bad way to encourage them. Make sure that you serve as a good role model to them by doing your part and making sure that they see you doing your part in this economic recession.