From The Economist archive Reactions of the Wall Street slump, Nov 23rd 1929
Category:3 The World of Money
Financial meltdown dwarfed by economic destruction of nature.
While the collapse of credit markets around the world is bearing on our minds, and curtailing our consumption today, the destruction of the earth’s biosphere by humanity’s footprint is so massive and immediate that its effects will compound the economic dislocation now and be felt directly within a year. The global economy is losing more …
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IMF Global Financial Stability Report
Here’s the IMF’s timely Global Financial Stability Report -Financial Stress and Deleveraging Macro-Financial Implications and Policy. And their media release warning about a failure to act decisively. This attitude may well be destructive given that the whole nature of the financial system must change fundamentally. Knee jerk reactions tend to be unproductive. This can be …
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New investing lingo
A fun email circulating trading desks, worthwhile as an informal measure of sentiment: CEO –Chief Embezzlement Officer. CFO– Corporate Fraud Officer. BULL MARKET — A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius. BEAR MARKET — A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife …
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Interest rates cut in desperation …
Six central banks have cut their interest rates by half a percentage point. The US Federal Reserve has cut rates from 2% to 1.5% and the European Central Bank (ECB) trimmed its rate from 4.25% to 3.75%. The UK trimmed the interest rate to 4.5% from 5%. The central banks of Canada and Sweden …
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A review of the crash, as the developed world enters recession …
It is becoming clear to most people that the gluttony that we have enjoyed over the past decade is now leading to a depressing hangover. The following links offer a simple record of the crash. Finance crisis: in graphics The layman’s finance crisis glossary Timeline: Global credit crunch We will discuss the outlook in upcoming …
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Thinking recession … feeling it yet?
The past couple of weeks people have really started to pay attention to the dislocation of financial markets and their impact on the economies, especially those of US and Europe. People have started to say they think we’re in a recession. I’m afraid this is the beginning only. We will start to feel the pain …
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The mess mapped
Another graphic showing the devious route we travelled to build a sub-prime house of cards … Source: Chain of fools Matt Miller The Deal.com, October 3, 2008 at 4:52 PM http://www.thedeal.com/newsweekly/features/chain-of-fools.php
How the bail-out affects you.
Here’s an extract from a Q&A on the BBC website about the proposed, but rejected, bail-out plan. You will see why it was not popular: How would the bail-out have affected me? If you live in the United States, another $2,300 would have been added to your share of the national debt. The bail-outs were …
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View from the inside: what went wrong, incompetence and what’s next …
Insightful comments from James Grant, a well respected financial market analyst. In this interview with the Financial Times he comments on intervention by the US government exacerbating the problem, the incompetence of fiduciaries and the “bail-out” plan. Here’s the video link.