The Story Of Uncle Sam - Part 1

Uncle Sam's story is the greed (of bankers) and thriftlessness of the American consumers in miniature. Altogether they add up to form factors contributing to the present fiasco of the subprime market which triggered a massive panic sell-off in shares worldwide last week (on August 8).

Uncle Sam is just one of the many caught in the dwindling residential house market with very gloomy outlook. A lot of signals pointed to the probable collapse of the house market with anticipated grave consequences for the American economy, but Uncle Sam took the warning with jeers, believing the United States as still being healthy.

Debt-ridden and, worse still, with scanty savings, Uncle Sam is now in a sorrowful state. The falling house prices in the States has become a nightmare making him almost an insomniac. There is a loud cry from him for help, but he is hardly heard now.

Uncle Sam is an IT engineer with his base in New York. In 90s during the frenzy IT boom, he was hotly demanded for his expertise - which he amassed riches throughout the period when NASDAQ went sky-high to the record 5000 points.

All good things must come to an end. The investors' illusions about and speculative chase for wealth eventually turned NASDAQ into bubble. Despite several rate increases to cool off, the market continued to rally with craze, making NASDAQ increasingly unsustainable.

The American court made an unfavourable ruling against Microsoft on its market monopolistic practice in March 2000 which threw the investors off their balance. The market took the excuse to correct - but the panic went out of control. The market quickly went bust and it eventually turned catastrophic.