Finance

The 200809 recession shook the global economy to an extent that no other economic crisis has done since the Great Depression of the early 1930s. The recession brought tens of economies, including some of the worlds largest, to near-collapse while scores of financial institutions had to be rescued from going under. Like any other crisis however, the recession brought rare opportunities to some who made great gains as a result of the recession.

Some of the biggest beneficiaries of this recession have been financial institutions which survived the crisis on their own, or were rescued by their governments early enough.Some of these institutions include the BNP Paribas, Commerzbank and Deutsche. While their competitors were collapsing one after the other, these banks swung in to acquire the assets of the dying competitors which were then worth a song. While many banks lay desperate for government rescue, the beneficiaries reported significantly higher profits while their shares went up continously (Baumann Nicholson). The biggest winners in the US included the Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo while Bear Stearns, Wachovia, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers paid the cost.

Other winners from the recession were the automakers who received aid from the government. Chrysler and General Motors received millions of dollars to keep them afloat at a time when automakers were collapsing. As competitors collapsed, the bailed-out auto-makers found their market expanding reasonably fast (Kaufman).  With the government aid the automakers were able to keep their business going, giving them a chance to make full recovery.

Potential winners from the recession include organizations which took the crisis as an opportunity to identify and analyse their strengths and weaknesses, and took appropriate actions to reduce their vulnerability to recurrence of similar occurences in the future (Joseph). The rate at which companies collapsed as a result of the recession makes it easy and safe for one to conclude that most organizations were totally unprepared for the occurrence of such crises. Those which therefore took the time to analyse their standing in the market are sure to have better chances of survival when the next recession hits.