ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

In Bangladesh, only one fifth of the preschool aged children ever could have access to center based programs though the centers hardly have sufficient materials for children's development. Considering this stunting situtaion the Sesame Workshop started a Bangladesh version of their project - Sesame Street Bangladesh, locally known as Sisimpur. Since a country like Bangladesh needs foriegn support to take developmental projects I wonder whether the Wall Street Tsunami will blow through out this country. We have long way to go to develop our children.

The sad and simple reality is that the crisis is virtually everyone's fault.

Our economy gets by on debt. People mostly buy stuff with credit, rather than cash.

Advantages: (1) People get the stuff right away and they can buy more expensive stuff. Who wouldn't want nice things without the hassle of saving for them???

(2) This is good for the makers of the stuff (cars, houses, clothes, etc...). People buying a lot of expensive things usually leads to a higher profit margin for the makers of those things. These businesses grow. They employ more people. Their employees buy a lot of expensive stuff with credit too.

(3) This is good for the institutions offering the credit. They make money off of the lent money, especially when only the minimum payments are made.

Everyone's happy! Hurray for credit! What a fun time!

Disadvantages:

(1) Inevitably, people are going to buy too much stuff and their debt is simply too much. They may have their stuff repossessed. Or, they may have to pay a higher interest rate because of late payments. This isn't fun. Making ends meet just got much harder. To what extent can we lower our standard of living?

(2) Makers of the stuff (businesses) aren't happy anymore either. People aren't buying as much stuff - and the stuff they do buy tends to be less expensive. The makers of stuff have to lay off employees. These formers employees now have a hard time paying of their debt. They, too, buy less stuff, which hurts other businesses.

(3) The institutions offering credit are unhappy too. Expected loan repayments with interest aren't coming in. This means they aren't making as much money as they expected. This hurts their stock. This also prevents them from offering credit to other people and businesses. Why go further in the hole and give more credit if a significant portion of people aren't repaying? Where would they get the money for the loan in the first place?

Oh no! This isn't fun anymore! The music has stopped and there is no more booze in the punch bowl.

Have no fear! The Federal Reserve is to the rescue! Let's print more money and give it to the financial institutions so that they can start the debt cycle over again.

Yes, yes... This will just make inflation worse (the $ will not be able to buy you as much stuff as it did before), but... that's okay. Just borrow more $$$ next time!

And, just for fun, let's hope the Senate approves a bill for a $700 billion dollar bailout. Precisely WHERE that $700 billion comes from does not matter (*cough* taxes) -- national interests are at stake.

As Families are impacted with higher prices, layoffs, and many other financial hardships -- we (licensed child care providers) are impacted. We lose clients, their ability to pay- we lose money, our income is very unstable causing our credit report to suffer as well as our ability to pay our bills and mortgages. We are seriously affected!

Living in Canada, we feel the fear of what is happening in the US, but take a little comfort in the fact that our financial system is more tightly regulated and though not immune from the Wall Street greed, are buffered from such extreme market effects. And while Canada is in the middle of a federal election campaign, and the Conservative right assures us we have a solid and resilient financial system, make no mistake, it is due to the strong regulation that our opposition governments instilled over the years and continue to support. The conservative government has tried over the years in the past to "deregulate" our banking system as "a means to stimulate a sluggish economy in favor of a more capitalist system". Well the very regulations they want to destroy, have saved our *#!! in this current crisis. The effects on our children and early learning are obvious with a slower economy, cuts to early learning programs and the end of the stick for quality and regulated child care funding.

I work for a company who has a preschool, Afterschool, dance, cheer, gymnastics, basketball, ice skating, and martial arts. We are feeling the money crisis everywhere. All of our programs except Afterschool are Luxuries in today’s times. Recreational activities are some of the first things to go. Our preschool has 20 spots opened. This summer our summer camp hardly filled up when we normally have to turn people away because we are so full. Our gymnastics program is really bad. Parents aren't signing out their children for gym. Our ice skating is open to the public. Sometime we have to close early because there isn't anyone here. I have worked here for 9 years and I feel like I am not going to loose my job but I fear for those who will.

In our preschool, we can't purchase the things we normally can because we don't have money. The kids can't get what we want to give them and we have to do with out most of the time.