SubscribeAll Posts Tagged With: "credit crisis"
Iceland Government First To Fall Due To Credit Crunch
The government of Iceland today became the first to be effectively brought down by the credit crunch.
After several nights of rioting over the financial crisis, Prime Minister Geir Haarde, surrendered to increasing pressure and called a general election for May.
A poll would not normally be held until 2011.
Protests had been held weekly since the crisis broke last year, but since Tuesday have been held every night.
On Thursday, police used teargas on demonstrators for the first time since protests against the North Atlantic island’s entry into the NATO alliance in 1949.
My comment: Iceland is not really known for being…
Will Calls for a “New Global Financial Order” Result in a Second Bretton Woods and the End of U.S. Dominance?
The leaders of 20 of the world’s most developed nations, the G20, will convene in Washington D.C. on Nov. 15 for an emergency financial summit considered by many to be the 21st century version of the Bretton Woods initiative of 1944. This will be the first chance for European leaders – many of whom blame the current financial contagion on U.S. free market capitalism run – to press for an overhaul of a global financial system the United States has dominated for more than 60 years.
The summit will “seek agreement on principles of reform needed to avoid a repetition of…
24Oct2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedAs the Credit Crisis Deepens, There Are Still Many More Questions Than Answers
Is there any end in sight? Will the G7 provide strong actions (or statements of confidence) to support the global markets? Are these efforts by the world’s central banks helping or simply scaring investors? Should more regulatory actions be taken? Should exchanges suspend trading temporarily (as some suggest) until calmer heads prevail?
With Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (OTC: LEHMQ) gone, investor worry shifted to Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and both stocks plunged accordingly. While Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (ADR: MTU) still claimed to be moving forward with a deal that would bring Morgan a badly needed $9 billion capital infusion,…
13Oct2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedCredit Crisis Update: Dow’s Wild Ride Convinces Some We’ve Seen the Bottom
Panicked international investors fled the markets as a steep sell-off circled the globe today (Friday), but a late-afternoon rally helped the U.S. market pare the bulk of declines.
“A lot of institutions are deciding to come back into the market,” Michael Nasto, the senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc., told Bloomberg News. “We’ve been beaten down so much. Some people feel this is the bottom.”
After plunging below 8,000 earlier in the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed course. At the New York close, the blue-chip Dow posted a reduced loss of 128.00 points (-1.49%), to close at 8,451.19. The tech-laden…
13Oct2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedCredit Crisis Safety Plays: How to Make Sure That Your Bank Deposits are FDIC Insured
With evidence mounting by the day that the banking industry may be in deeper than it admits, many investors are wondering what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) actually does and how it will protect them.
This question becomes even more crucial now that, under the proposed banking-sector rescue legislation that was passed by the Senate Wednesday night, the individual cap on the level of government-guaranteed deposits would be raised from the current $100,000 to the new level of $250,000.
Let’s take a look at what the FDIC is and does, and outline how it’s supposed to function. There are also two steps folks…
3Oct2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedCredit Crisis Update: U.S. Stocks Notch Record Gains on Investor Hopes for a New Bailout Plan
U.S. stocks soared yesterday (Tuesday) – with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 485 points in posting its third-biggest point gain ever – as investors surged back into stocks just one day after the surprise rejection of a $700 billion bailout plan touched off a record sell-off.
On Monday, after the House of Representatives refused to approve the compromise bailout accord, the Dow Jones plunged nearly 778 points – for its biggest point drop ever – as $1.2 trillion in shareholder wealth was eradicated from U.S. shares. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dove 8.79%, incurring its biggest loss since the 1987 stock market…
1Oct2008 | Managing Money | Comments Off | ContinuedFive Reasons Why the $700 Billion Banking Bailout Will Translate into $250 Oil
I’ve been predicting record oil prices for a number of years now, so when crude oil prices recently plunged from their record highs, I warned investors and consumers that the decline was nothing more than a temporary respite.
But now it’s clear that the fallout from the $700 billion banking bailout pact will virtually guarantee that my prediction will come true.
As the curtain closed on the third quarter yesterday (Tuesday) – leaving many investors worried that the long-feared "Super Crash" was imminent – crude-oil futures were staring at their first decline in seven quarters and their biggest quarterly decline in 17 years,…
1Oct2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedTHE INNOVATOR, THE IMITATOR AND THE IDIOT
While in Vienna last week, I grabbed hold of the international edition of The Wall Street Journal. Over a classic Viennese breakfast of coffee, a boiled egg and pastry, I stumbled across an interview with Ted Forstmann, titled, “The Credit Crisis Is Going to Get Worse.”
I hadn’t seen Forstmann’s name in years. He once lorded over one of the world’s most famous private equity firms, Forstmann Little. For a time, it was, as the Journal notes, “the most successful private equity firm in the world, renowned for both its outsized returns and its caution.” When things got a little too…
24Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | ContinuedA Supersized Transfer of Wealth
U.S. markets were closed on Friday…
…Still, the world did not stand still so Americans could enjoy their fireworks and hotdogs.
“Americans are so nice…so positive. I always like going back to the United States.” This was the word from Elizabeth, who just returned from the Land of the Free this morning.
“When you live in France you forget how nice strangers can be. But it is amazing how big people have gotten.”
(Being “nice” is something Americans strive to be; it is not something the French care about particularly. Instead, on the surface, the French are “correct” or polite. Later, you find that they…
8Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | ContinuedHow Will We Know the Credit Crisis and Banking Fiasco Are Truly Over?
How will we know the credit crisis and banking fiasco are truly over?
We won’t.
But there’s a damn good indicator that will show us the way – the London Interbank Offer Rate, usually referred to as LIBOR.
And right now LIBOR tells us that this financial mess still has room to run.
As indicators go, recent developments have demonstrated that the LIBOR system is arguably corrupt. Until now, LIBOR always has been constructed by industry insiders – with little in the way of oversight or regulation. It drives billions of dollars of trades and transactions a day. And it’s publicly available at 11:30…
12Jun2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | Continued
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