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341 comments on DrumBeat: January 22, 2008

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WNC Observer on January 22, 2008 - 9:57am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

The Financial Markets Roller Coaster Ride Thread

NIKKEI down 5.65%
Hang Sing down 8.65%
CAC 40 DowN 0.84%
DAX Down 2.2%
FTSE Down 0.34%

Fed Cuts Rates By 3/4%

"May you live in interesting times!"

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alan on January 22, 2008 - 10:07am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"May you live in interesting times!"

...and attract the interest of important people

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CrystalRadio on January 22, 2008 - 12:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

hi Alan, thanks for the 'heads up', I never knew about the last half of that curse, but sounds right on ... these are times again to keep ones head down. (but maybe with just the occasional pot shot over the parapet:)

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mcgowanmc on January 22, 2008 - 10:13am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"We must feel the mercy of the angels in all this, not fret about the magic money.

The history of bubbles is long and well-known for hundreds of years yet the very sophisticated and powerful people at the top of global society have decided yet again. to create bubbles and blow them up as much as possible. To(day) will bring ruin to many here in America. They will run to the rulers and hold out their hands and beg to be saved from the follies of the rulers. The rulers will go to Death and demand more gold, more power and more land. 'Make us gods!' they will order, sternly. And Death will flick a finger and more wealth will vanish. Poof."

http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/money_matters/

The Slide into the Gorge gets steeper.

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CrystalRadio on January 22, 2008 - 10:40am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Nice to see someone in good mood this morning:)

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mcgowanmc on January 22, 2008 - 10:44am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

8D

Erin go Brea. May the Luck of the Irish be with us all.

How's that.

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ckaupp on January 22, 2008 - 2:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks McG.

Another excellent source of info is the video "The Money Masters." It will be the education you never got in school. Warning, it is a long documentary at 3.5 hours. But those will be the most important 3.5 hours you ever spend in your adult life.

It isn't in the public domain, but can often be found on google. Sometimes you can find parts of it elsewhere. The last time I looked, the whole video was at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&q=money+mast...

cheryl

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ZPDM123 on January 24, 2008 - 10:46pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks

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Leanan on January 22, 2008 - 10:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Public borrowing smashes forecasts to hit record high

Britain's public finances worsened yesterday as record borrowing figures cast doubt on the Government's ability to counter any fall-off in economic activity.

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musashi on January 22, 2008 - 4:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

There also are things moving in the background. BofA and Chase just raised the rates to 25% and 21% even for prime people with the highest credit scores. Clear intent of taking away remaining lines of credit or get a major premium.

The result of these attempted bailouts is going to be stratospheric real interest rates and will transition the economy from a stall into a flat spin.

Read column2, the banks are bankrupt, all their reserves are in BORROWED money.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/Current/

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Leanan on January 22, 2008 - 4:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Why aren't people more alarmed than they are? Is there any way this ends well?

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oldhippie on January 22, 2008 - 4:15pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

They don't know how to be alarmed.
For a generation the way to get along has been to smile and be empty-headed.
News is a term that no longer has meaning.
The type who hangs here has sounded the alarm too many times and we are, in terms of the normal world, nuts.

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musashi on January 22, 2008 - 5:59pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

One way or another the system has to reset. I do not feel like I can predict how it will reset, we all have a opinion on how we would like it to reset but it's anyones guess how the cookie will crumble.

All one can do is to try and place odds on the various likely scenarios and allocate resources and time accordingly.

It isn't so easy to fight on your feet when surrounded by hordes of people that rather live on their knees = hard to soar like an eagle when surrounded by turkeys.

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PaulS on January 22, 2008 - 10:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Let's see. They did bupkis in school and slid through on automatic A's and games where no score was kept. All ended well. Then they took jobs paying huge wages for zero skill and little effort (though that gravy train has diminished.) All ended well. Meanwhile, they watched tens of thousands of hours of TV where the good guys virtually always won. All ended well. They even persuaded themselves that they would live forever ("toxins" aside.) All ended well (the ones no longer here have no say in this.) And all the while, they steadily became more prosperous - indeed, many who brought nothing of value to the party nonetheless conjured up palatial houses and shiny cars out of thin air. All ended well. And now the Fed will keep the party going with a giant bailout. All...

Gee, is it even conceivable that anything whatsoever might not end well?

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sldulin on January 22, 2008 - 11:00pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

BAC up $1.45, JP Morgan Chase up $1.29, Bear Stearns up $5.45. What Me Worry?

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the_rage on January 22, 2008 - 4:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

In aggregate, reserves are on borrowed money, but individually they are not from what I read there. It would be nice to see which individual banks are in trouble - too bad they don't publish that (except for quarterly earnings).

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elwoodelmore on January 22, 2008 - 5:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

chase offered me a rate of 3.99%* until the balance is paid. i have been paying their account down asap, that apparently made them nervous .

* with a $200 max fee

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ImSceptical on January 22, 2008 - 10:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

musashi, I must be stupid, because to me the spreadsheet showed that the banks are almost fully covered by NON-borrosed funds [ie., column 2].

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R W Reactionary on January 22, 2008 - 10:59pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You needed to go all the way to the bottom of the second chart. The last two enteries demonstrate that things went very wrong in January [the last two lines on the chart] with negative nonborrowed reserves in the last line.

Also note the large "term credit auction" numbers. My understanding is that this is a new inovation designed to limit the stigma of financial institutions borrowing directly from the Fed.

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Zadok_the_Priest on January 22, 2008 - 8:24pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

BBC News Business: (Robert) Preston's Picks, FED ALERT IS RED ALERT
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/

If it looks like panic at the Fed, smells like panic at the Fed, and quacks like panic at the Fed, well many will say it is panic at the Fed.

And what if the evasive action doesn’t work?

What if, after the Bernanke bounce, stock markets continue to fall, financial markets remain relatively illiquid, banks remain reluctant to lend and the US economy continues careering towards recession?

Then the players in the global financial souk will begin to fear that the US authorities “hav’nae got the power”, to quote Scotty.

Which, in the battle between the doom-mongers and the optimists over prospects for the global economy, would represent a disturbing victory for the forces of darkness.

When the BBC begins to use the word "panic" it looks as though people, even journalists, are starting to pay close attention.

The ruse is up. The coyotes are howling in the winderness.

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sgage on January 22, 2008 - 8:36pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"The ruse is up. The coyotes are howling in the winderness."

Surely they will figure out a way to blame the coyotes...

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341 comments on DrumBeat: January 22, 2008

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