Unbelievable. Wachovia, for all purposes, just went down with FDIC backing as it transitioned to Citi's ownership (and taxpayer ownership on losses: 50%). Fortis and major European Banks are cracking now (Fortis and B&B basically failed -HSBC is showing cracks). This legislation pending is doomed to be a gigantic failure. We are all being screwed by the U.S. Government - those of you supporting the bailout legislation are amazingly naive or must have ulterior motives. Meredith Whitney (regardless of what you think of her) nailed calls on this financial meltdown before a single failure occurred (before Bear Stearns or Indymac - in fact, before New Century or mortgage brokerage failures), and she was on this morning proclaiming confidently that 1) taxpayers are going to lose big on this legislation, and that 2) the legislation will not achieve its central goals. If there was ever a time to yank this legislation, it is now.
stocks will tank over the next few weeks / months as they realise the significance of this bailout. that is the days of huge leverage, speculation and profits are over. as accounted by the stock markets worldwide highs of the last few years. massive regulation and a huge mount of funds not playing anymore because they are not allowed to or do not have the access to capital to do so. the us economy will make the transistion from a financial services base to a manufacturing base and real services industry. it will take several years if not a full decade but it will happen. these guys have nearly taken the system under and they will not be allowed to do so again. in an electronic age with real time electronic trading the speed of this downfall has been amazing. the authorities clearly have struggled to cope and i think we were all amazed at how quickly it happened. people like doug noland at prudent bear were slated for being wrong for so long but ultimately he was right all along and his analysis of credit derivative speculation and growth was spot on. the game has changed forever boys.
They had better kill this bill. Better to let the market flush out the toxins quickly, than spread like a virus and infect the responsible and healthy actors, know matter how painful any correction may be.
GBP is making dollars look attractive.The UK is totally screwed too,with every component of every UK housing related figure being a disaster. With rate cuts looking like a necessity while the US is forming a bailout plan,amazingly it seems people would rather hold USDs than GBPs.
Everywhere is bad and if it's not being reported that way it's basic propoganda or deceit by omission. Who would have thought that even Dubai would be facing a slowdown? http://business.timesonline.co.uk/t.../construction_and_property/article4842323.ece