Hi Kiashu
Unfortunately, because the US is in the POO so are the rest of us including Australia - one of the downsides of globalisation, we all shares the highs and the lows and all financial systems and economies are intrinsically dependent. The US is the cog that drives the world economy and right now that is grinding to a halt and set to rust with little oil left to lubricate it of its own.

They consume 25 percent of what is produced worldwide including the oil and we may all talk about their consumerist attitudes and that the rest of us are more frugal, but truth be told we need them. The next bleak truth is the US economy has run into the brick wall of reality and all the plans for more borrowing to fund economic stimulus packages are just short term bandaid fixes while the - patient is haemorrhaging internally. The same is true of Rudd’s plans here in Australia.

They talk in the US about an infrastructure stimulus package, but in the end where does the money come from – certainly not US banks since they are being nationalised as we speak. So it is foreign money and what if the US starts to default on its loans?? Will the foreign bankers/ countries call in their money.
So to Australia, a third world/ first world nation since we are effectively reliant on exporting our natural resources, which then get shipped to other countries to be turned into goods which we then import. We don’t really have that much of a manufacturing base and although not in the poo up to our necks like the yanks we are probably already up to our knees and the poo is rising fast.

So the Australian scenario is a doubling in unemployment, to around 900,000. This will include large scale layoffs in the mining and resource sector which have already started and then the building sector. This is just starting to happen as the number of new home starts continues to decline. The estimates are half of the current mining sector and a third of real estate agents will not survive this current down turn.

The tourism industry will take a large hit as people worldwide cut back on discretionary spending and in the end we are a long way from most places. Likewise higher education, heavily reliant on international full fee paying students is starting to feel the pinch. Long term the economic recovery when is does come will be a hiccup on the down ward trend of the markets, since by that point the lack of investment in oil and energy due to a lack of investment will push oil prices up again leading to another price hike, probably higher, before another collapse again and so on.

So to reiterate again, if the US is in the POO, the world is in the POO.