I am now in New York City, about to leave for the airport to fly back to Tokyo. Whether you are online or watching CNBC/Bloomberg right now, (Opening bell will ring in five minutes!), it seems that what is happening in the financial market is almost beyond our imagination. Exchange rate goes up and down, and oil price has gone down so much in a day!

  This last weekend, there was a talk about Lehman Brothers and on Sunday, we found out that they will file for Chapter 11 and Bank of America will buy Merrill Lynch! Now the topic is what is happening to AIG. 
   Though I am an expert in financial services industry and market, I can tell that thousands of people will lose the job, if they have not yet.   

   It is somewhat interesting that being able to see what is happening in the markets throughout the world affects how you feel about these things. You can tell that the world is increasingly interrelated. As people say, the market moves based upon the “perception” and the technology such as Internet etc. affects our perception so much.

   Last night, on the other hand, I went to see the play, Equus, preview at the Broadway. You see completely different side of New York City there. This is an interesting city and remains as my favorite in the world.