I too felt it. As I attended a career fair at my college, and the IT companies were ready to take me regardless of my major infact, while the energy, research and scientific ones were not so open. The IT companies even told me I could work part time , full time, from home or anywhere! They sounded as eager as any s/w company sounds anytime. That clearly shows … If nothing else works, get a computer degree !

And, about the crisis situation… if you go by Micheal Crichton (keeping in mind his State of Fear) its all nothing but a big hoax planted by the govt to keep the junta (populace) under control. Nothing to worry about really

In a sense, it does, doesn’t it? Of course, that depends on how you define “total amount” which of course is a non-trivial problem. If you measure “assets” in term of their money value, then the total assets do change in a crisis like this one right?

The slide in the stock markets were preceded by falling housing prices caused by defaulting house owners.So there were indeed lots of turmoil in the real economy before it became a wall st crisis reflected on their toxic balance sheets. Ofcourse,it is all in a furious negative feedback loop now,feeding off each other.