Archive for October, 2008
Broken Securities Industry Still Has $20 Billion to Pay Bonuses
October 27th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: Five straight quarters of losses and a 70 percent slide in its stock this year haven’t stopped Merrill Lynch & Co. from allocating about $6.7 billion to pay bonuses. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, both still on track for profitable years, have set aside about $13 billion for bonuses after three […]
‘Out of Control’ CEOs Spurned Davos Warnings on Risk
October 27th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: Once upon a time, the World Economic Forum was the ultimate Wall Street jamboree. Now, in the riptide of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, WEF officials and delegates say many of the chief executive officers who gathered in Davos, Switzerland, over the last five years didn’t listen to warnings from […]
UK: Police Will Use New Device to Take Fingerprints in Street
October 27th, 2008Via: Guardian: Every police force in the UK is to be equipped with mobile fingerprint scanners – handheld devices that allow police to carry out identity checks on people in the street. The new technology, which ultimately may be able to receive pictures of suspects, is likely to be in widespread use within 18 months. […]
U.S. Companies Are Still Competitive… For Bailout Money
October 27th, 2008Maybe the firms can hire BlackWater vans and aircraft to transport legions of hookers and suitcases of bribe money around the greater Washington DC area. Welcome to the Bailout Industrial Complex. Via: AP: The bailout is now the hottest lobbying game in town. Insurers, automakers and American subsidiaries of foreign banks all want the Treasury […]
Asian Markets Sharply Lower Again: Nikkei Down 6%, Hang Seng Down 12%
October 27th, 2008Europe is just getting underway and it’s the same: Sharply lower again. Via: AP: Asian stock markets resumed their slide Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei stock index falling to a 26-year low, as government rescue measures failed to ease fears of a prolonged global recession. Investors were scared to wade back into equities, worried a stream […]
Australia: Central Bank Tries to Halt Currency Collapse
October 27th, 2008Spit balls at the ready… Aim… FIRE! Via: AFP: Australia’s central bank intervened Monday to prop up the local dollar after it plunged 3.7 percent against the greenback as investors turned it into the whipping boy of the global financial crisis. The rare intervention by the central bank was aimed at adding liquidity “in an […]
World Gives Aussie Dollar a Walloping
October 27th, 2008Via: Sydney Morning Herald: GLOBAL financial markets have singled out the Australian dollar for special punishment. Over the weekend the local currency was subjected to its biggest sell-off since it was floated in 1983. As the gloom darkens over the global economy, the frenzied sell-off on world sharemarkets has spread to currency markets, and the […]
With Wreckage Piling Up, Fed Eyes Another Rate Cut
October 27th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell of hold any financial instrument. DISCLOSURE: I hold physical gold and November call options on GLD. In a more sane world, one would expect an interest rate reduction to lead to a drop in the value of a currency, relative to that currency’s peers. With the […]
Soviet Republic of Australia: The Word ‘Drought’ is Too Upsetting for Farmers; ‘Dryness’ is More Comforting
October 27th, 2008No, this isn’t The Onion. Via: Telegraph: The word “drought” makes farmers feel depressed and should be replaced with “dryness”, a panel of Australian government experts has said. The group also warned farmers to get used to the lack of rain because dry conditions are expected to continue. “Words like drought … have negative connotations […]
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October 27th, 2008Thank you. WH CA$25 Eileen $40 Eileen $40 (Farmlet) MW $20
