Oil is getting crushed and very fast indeed. Now consumption does not , can not change that quickly. Nor can people’s estimates of future consumption alter that fast. Which means this is about speculative pricing unwinding in a hurry. The big banks are selling and closing their positions. Who will get the check I don’t …
London down 3.2% – 170 pointsTokyo down 3.1% – 330 pointsFrankfurt down 3.2% – 193 pointsParis down 4.6% – 164 pointsDow down 1.77% -187 points Losses everywhere are not only continuing but accelerating. They’ll pull back in late trading no doubt. But confidence? I don’t think so Yesterday the NYSE tried to tell the world …
This morning I heard several political grandees and more than one pundit all opining, ‘Well, the message of this election is unclear’. Bollocks! I don’t know if these people are smug, stupid or deaf, but the message from the electorate could not be any clearer. The politicians think its unclear because they think clarity only …
Hung Parliament – ‘confused’ message or crystal clear? Read More »
Could it happen again? Will it spread? Today is the day to ask. So I am. And my answer is, it could well do – with a Greek collapse or without. Today Italy revised its GDP growth projections downward. Now there’s a shock. In January it estimated GDP growth of 1.1% in 2010 and 2% …
Ask yourself this – what’s to stop this happening again? Even if Germany agrees to cough up tens of billions and the poorer Greeks agree to be further impoverished for a decade, what is to stop Portugal, Spain or Italy, who are already on the same slope, sliding down to where Greece is now? And …
So there were the bankers cruising along in the sunshine admiring themselves when there was a sudden roaring sound and the ship started to list very badly to one side. Turns out some Greek deck hand had left the car-deck doors open and the sea was pouring in. 800 points down at one point! I …
A collapse of Greece is feared more in Paris Frankfurt and Geneva than in Athens. One of the first things that would happen is the AT least one major French bank would be blown out of the water. It would happen by it not being able to borrow AT ALL and the cost of insuring …
Stock markets all over the East fell like stones yesterday. Tokoyo dropped 3.3%, Shanghai dropped 4.1%, Australia lost 2.2% Three things are conspiring. First, worries that China’s growth may slow, either by design (by choking back on all th elending and free money flowing out) or by accident (the credit pull-back precipitates a property and …
The Greek people are doing the right thing. So far no one has AKSED the PEOPLE of Greece if they like the deal being offered them. Why should they just passively agree to be shafted by the IMF, the EU, Greek banks and the wealthy class of Greeks who will pay nothing towards the pain …
So now we come to it – the defining moment for the ECB. The ECB said it would never stoop to buying junk debt/bonds just to bail out an errant nation. This week the markets and the ECB stood toe to toe and looked for weakness; the ECB blinked first and agreed to buy any …
