No worries

September 18, 2008 - 3:57 PM by Jessica · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, General

Well, it’s a bad time to be a newly minted MBA, and word has it from Globes that Lehman Brothers employees in New York — presumably Israeli – are calling the Finance Ministry offices in New York to see if there’s work available in Tel Aviv. You know things must be bad if NYC Masters of the Universe are thinking about moving to Tel Aviv for work, but the word on the street is that Israel is on the “margins of the crisis.”

“The present financial crisis is on a scale we haven’t previously experienced,” says Yoram Ariav, director general of the Finance Ministry. “There’s no doubt that we’ll be affected by it, but we’re on the margins, and there’s no reason to panic. Everything is under control, and the impact will be limited.”

I heard the same thing during the Money Hour on the Kol Yisrael radio station, as Israel Merrill Lynch analyst Haim Israel talked about Israel’s still stable economy, 4.4% GDP growth and undervalued shekel as reasons why Israel can remain relatively unscathed during this shaky financial period. And finally, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer gathered the banking directors of Israel’s seven largest banks yesterday to hear about their exposure to Lehman Brothers and the stability of their banks. Nothing to worry about, they told Stanley, we’re doing okay over here.

And what about global insurance giant AIG? Well, the Israel CEO, Hava Friedman, told Army Radio that the Israeli company is not tied to the U.S. company, so no reason to worry. I have my reservations about that reassurance, but I’ll tell you this much: I’ve got AIG insurance, and they just sent me a Happy Birthday SMS, so that must mean we’ve got nothing to worry about.

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