President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has come up with a very stupid idea. How stupid? It might not be the most stupid idea from France ever (after all they came up with the French Revolution and the idea of moving the European Parliament between Brussels and Strasbourg) but is certainly the most ambitiously stupid idea [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Financial Markets’
October 13, 2008
Some Sunshine at Last
In most times, one good day on Wall Street is nothing to be happy for. This due to the well known “Random Walk Theory” accepted by most people. But, 11.1 % (Fox) however, in the middle/or end of i financial crisis, is a big deal. An injection of confidence may not directly affect the values [...]
October 13, 2008
The Crown Takes Over The Royal Bank
The Royal Bank of Scotland is to raise £20 billion through a share issue. The British government is underwriting the issue – if it takes all the shares it would own almost 60 % of the bank (The Financial Times).
Sounds scary. But Sir Tom McKillop, chairman, said this was unlikely:
“I believe this is an excellent [...]
October 9, 2008
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
The Dow Jones closed down 7.3 % (The Financial Times). Clearly the Bailout has had no short-term effect. But now the federal government is considering taking equity stakes in banks (The New York Times). I repeat that: the United States government is considering part-nationalising the banking system.
Iceland has now nationalised its third bank, Kaupthing (FT). [...]
October 9, 2008
History
House prices continue to fall in the UK. They have fallen so much that prices have not been this low since… since… since January 2006 (The Financial Times).
January 2006 is not 1929, is it?
JDR
October 8, 2008
Who’ll Stop The Rain?
This morning British Chancellor Alistair Darling unveiled a bank rescue package. The deal in effect part-nationalises the sector at a potential cost of £50 billion (The Financial Times). The ‘Conservative’ Party seems to support the move (ConservativeHome).
The Zanzibar Gazette has featured a great deal of debate on the American Bailout. Both Mr Glomgold and I [...]
October 7, 2008
Bad Moon Rising
This is not a pleasant time to be reflecting on events in the world.
First of all, more banking chaos today. Both banks of Scotland (RBS and HBOS) plungend today (The Financial Times). Beyond the North and Norwegian Seas, the Icelandic government nationalised Landsbanki only a week after it did the same to Glitnir (FT).
Secondly, McCain [...]
October 6, 2008
The melancholy blues..
Glomgolds portfolio is not healthy.. Luckily I´m part liquid and I got no leverage thanks god.
This stock market crash is powerful enough to give global aggregated demand a real kick in the nuts. When will this end? I haven´t seen P/E ratios this low since 2001, maybe not even then.. Western European indexes have fallen [...]
October 6, 2008
Meltdown Monday III
Despite the Bailout, markets are crashing all around (The Financial Times).
A trader captures the mood:
“Black Mondays used to be a once-a-decade event – now they’re coming along more regularly than a London bus”.
JDR
