...I may be forced, at the very least, to glare at them in a disapproving manner.
The so-called "credit crunch" has been threatening to cause the world's economy to topple and leave nothing more than financial debris for months now. I am not denying we are in the middle of a potentially crippling economic downturn. I for one am wondering how I am going to continue to pay for a degree and general living for the next 12 months (with no significant, or even regular, income) after the bank holding my savings account earmarked "Masters" collapsed recently.
So I am fully aware of the almost imminent recession we totter so close to and nervously watch, read and absorb any news about the current economic climate. But the term "credit crunch" simply annoys me. It seems that in our 24/7 media world EVERYTHING needs to be alliterated.
It doesn't. And this particular phrase makes the current financial situation sound like a cereal bar or a nasty boxing term.
"Credit Crunch - the honey coated oats and raisin bar to start your day"
or
"Hatton's quick right hook and deadly credit crunch saw his opponent out of the competition."
What does it mean anyway? How can credit crunch? City commentators have been spewing out page after page on this and what caused it for months.
It seems to me, from my albeit limited understanding, that "credit crunch" is a term that has been created to avoid the word "recession" in a (failed) bid to stop panic and ease the economic situation. "Credit crunch" is a phrase that has come to incite fear in even the most happily ignorant of beings.
I'm a student so I'm not necessarily that financially savvy. That said I finished my undergraduate degree in the unusual position of having savings. Ok, so it was due to inheritance but it was useful and meant I could actually consider the Masters course I had my heart set on.
I like to think I was looking after that money. I didn't fritter it all away on booze and whatever. I travelled a bit. I bought a new laptop. I cleared a some of my debt from my undergrad (although not my student loan, I still have to pay that back someday). The rest I put in a couple of high interest paying bank accounts knowing that a year or so down the line I'd be wanting the money for my MA.
But now I'm faced with the fact that I have been careful with money I may not ever get back. There is part of me that wishes that I had been carefree and "wasted" my money galavanting about the globe and so forth.
I don't like that I have become so dependent on money. I've always thought it was a useful commodity but that I wouldn't feel loss or too much worry about not having it as long as I could afford to live.
How wrong I was.
These last few weeks have been filled with worry and mild hysteria knowing full well my parents have no money with which to bail me out. In the space of a few days I went from the relatively financially independent daughter with enough funds for the next year or so of my life to considering how long I can make my overdraft last for if all I eat and drink is air.
