Friday, October 10, 2008

At 8:30 am this morning, the London Stock Exchange opened. By 8:40am it had lost 10% of its value.

Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo reacted immediately and fell even further.
This is not a roller coaster ride.
This is an elevator with it's cable cut.
Property values are in meltdown.
Soon the banks will be the world's biggest landlords.
The banks have no money or liquidity, just a growing portfolio of properties no one wants to buy at any price.
City center flats in the UK are losing £500 a week in value.
£500 BILLION was injected into the money supply on Tuesday.
The market caught its breath and today stepped off a cliff.
God help anyone getting ready to retire. Your pension has lost 30% of its value over the last 8 days.
60% of all pensions are invested in the markets.
Blue chip stocks are not escaping the bloodbath.
Who knows what's about to happen?
Prague, Bangkok and Iceland have suspended their stock exchanges.
In fact the country of Iceland has just nationalised all its banks.
Its currency is in free fall.
BILLIONS of UK local government money deposited in high interest current accounts in Iceland are frozen.
Some local governments in the UK can't make their payroll liabilities next week.
The UK government has frozen Icelandic assets in the UK by using anti terroism laws.....WTF???
Is this 1929?
General Motors shares are now trading at prices not seen since the 1950s.
So much for Blue Chip stocks.
The markets may claw some ground back today but when no one is buying the price of stock has only one direction to go.......
Yikes
T

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's "rallied", now FTSE 100 has only lost 6% of its value.

TR-HW

Anonymous said...

QUESTION:
What's the capital of Iceland?
ANSWER:
At current exchange rates about $5.50

Terry said...

Not bad.....it made me chuckle at least

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, I am sitting here in my office in a very boring Webex meeting. If it was more interesting I would be destracted from the market updates here in Toronto (The TSX). The market has dropped 362 points today and a ton - like everywhere else this past couple of weeks. At one point today the market was down 700points. Our dollar has dropped almost 5 cents to the US dollar today. Fortunately, our banking system is one of the most stable in the world. That's what regulation buys and I am happy for it. I realize I am rambling now, but somehow it makes me feel better. Thanks for the outlet Terry!

My advice...

* Hold on tight and wait for the very ineffective Bush to leave office.
* Hope Obama wins the election. He doesn't have all the answers, but psychologically on "main street", he might give it a boost.
* Have a drink or two or three - I recommend Highland Park single malt whiskey (Terry - you know what I am talking about).

Thank God it's the weekend and the markets will be closed.

David

Anonymous said...

MESSAGE FROM, HRH THE QUEEN

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

(You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize'
will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of '-ize.'

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist,then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you
understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. Australian beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily tea time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

TR-HW

Anonymous said...

For David, Don't look at the markets today. Just don't. The FTSE 100's gone through the f'n floor.

TR-HW