Have been meeting friends these past 2 weeks, and have been getting the same indication --- Economy sudah merosok

Friends from different fields, from different companies, some whose target domestic market, others targeting export / international market, and even those who are HQ at Johor, KL, Singapore, and when we compare notes, we found out that what had been troubling us for the past few weeks, what we had been suspecting, is true

And when we compare notes, for the past few weeks alone, business has gone down from 10% to 40%, depending on company, target market, industry, location

Things had started to go down before the election, but the effect was minimal, because at that time many of us still had existing orders as buffer

And now, the election is over, things gone from bad to worse - some of my friends (almost all of them taukeh / managing directors) couldn't land any new order - and some of the factories are starting to cut back on overtime, some even are planning to cut shifts, from 3 to 2, or from 2 to 1

Dunno how long this downturn will last, and dunno how bad this time it gonna be, but this ain't a joke

We started to network for the past few weeks because we had that "feeling" that something was not right, it stayed a "feeling" until, as I said, we started to compare notes, and the picture becomes clear --- the downturn is starting to hit us, all of us

U salaryman won't feel the pinch yet, but in a month or two (or maybe in a quarter or two) you might

Those of us whose market is mainly outside of Malaysia do not have that luxury

Those catering for domestic market may be able to buffer themselves with the one-time-injection of raya sales, but what will happen after raya ?

Anyway, we have compared notes and some of us are starting to shift our attention to new markets or new industry, hoping to find a new niche

One thing for sure ...

Malaysia ranks #1 in Asia in domestic debt

The debt level is 183%

For us who run businesses, it already hit

I do not play stock, but according to some of my friends whose companies are listed on KLSE they are telling me that a crunch is in the making

This post has been edited by ash tray: Jul 3 2013, 09:08 PM

if worth of local currency goes down, things we sell become cheaper on international market

but, and this is a very important but, we are not the only seller, and there are always new sellers entering the market, and the competition is very fierce

we have a lot of problems --- and they come in multitude of fronts ---

1. price wise we can not undercut competitors from bangla or vietnam or cambodia or africa

2. technology wise we lose to china, taiwan, korea, japan, europe, america

3. our businesses don't get any sapot from the government - businesses in other countries, even businesses in singapore get a lot of help from their government

4. efficiency wise we lose to many others

5. not only our government don't sapot us, we have to face a lot of ridiculous red tape from our own government

6. our business people are split - and many of our business people are not business savvy at all --- all they do is to sux the "t1ts" of the GLCs, which in turns got their $$ from the government, which in turn, got the money from us

7. many of our business people are not brave enough - when i went to africa, i had to do it all by myself, and in africa, i met with a lot of business people from thailand, believe it or not

both japan & korea money are very small

germany also get a lot of R&D, but euro not small at all

citation please

what i want is fact, real fact, not conspiracy theory

the worth of a nation's currency is important

however, in the case for malaysia, the worth of rm is not that important, because, no matter how cheap rm gets, or how expensive rm becomes, if malaysia does not get its act together, all of us will suffer

business people like me can move out, after all, for us, we can do business in malaysia, we can also do business in thailand or in angola

it is you guys, the salary man and the civil servants who will bear the brunt

This post has been edited by ash tray: Jul 3 2013, 10:20 PM

you are quoting cliches

try saying something that is original

wealth does last for many generations - wealth, in terms of knowledge

the jews have it

the cainis have it

the japanese have it

socialism does not work

capitalism is the most effective system there is - until some other new thoughts (not half baked ones) emerge

one will work when one is hungry

one will work very hard when one has an urge to go ahead

but if you feed someone without having that person to do any work, do you think that someone will want to work?

malaysia is filled with a special type of "without tongkat kenot do anything" kind of people (i do not mean the meleis, i mean the arm no pu te ras) --- they are well fed, they are well clothed, they are well sheltered, and they do not have to work hard

day in, day out, they demand more and more tongkat

This post has been edited by ash tray: Jul 3 2013, 10:35 PM

1. without competition there is no motivation for ppl to innovate

2. stop thinking inside a little box --- get out of it

the pie is not a zero-sum game

it can be grown bigger

anyone who been through the 1997 crash can attest to the fact that high end restaurants and shopping malls were among the first to suffer during an economic downturn

without excess money ppl won't go eat in expensive restaurants

when the money become tight, ppl will tighten their belts and will think of ways to save money

we do not know how bad this economic downturn will be, but many business people are starting to prepare, for the worst

99.9999999999% of any human's lifespan is used on doing things for oneself

when you get hungry, will you go feed someone else or will you feed yourself first ?

when you are cold, will you put more clothing on yourself or will you give the clothing to other ppl ?

if you see a leng loi, and like her, do you think of "how I can get her" or do you think of "how to get that leng loi for my best friend" ?

if you see someone taking your money, do you stop them from doing so, or do you tell them that, over there, i got even more money, please enjoy yourself, go get more ?

not necessarily

some of my friends are very rich, and their businesses are big

big business are like big ships, not agile, very hard to be maneuvered

on the other hand, small business are small, and they are very agile, and can change course within a bat of the eyelid

it is like a nyamok and an elephant

there will be opportunity cost no matter what you do

and ppl who had been through the 1997 crash are not necessarily "conservatives"

i had been through that, but i fought on, and started to diversify my business because of that crash

now i have businesses not only in malaysia, but also in africa

most of the parables stay just that, parables

they can not, and will never exist in the reality

as i said, citation needed

those stories about anwar lobbying for the zionist jews that were printed in the local media are not facts --- and those local media that printed such "fables" are themselves junk

i need facts, true, real facts, not conspiracy theories

true, very very true

sheeps and pigs always end up in the abattoir

unfortunately, 99% of the people are either sheeps, or pigs, or both