Stock Market Blues

[stuart.uk]

Moira

I was just wondering if what I'm hearing is true that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have been proclaimed as heros in the U.S as some sort of Red Adairs. It's been suggested the rest of the world are folling his lead.

Before this crisis Brown was in real danger of losing his job as Prime Minister, but his actions both Nationally (Nationalising the Banks and putting tax payers money into the system) and Internationally since the crisis began have made him more popular.

Our own reporter John Stapleton has often asked the question that is the credit crunch doing for Gordon Brown what the Falklands war did for the then unpopular P.M Magaret Thatcher, who turned her career around as a result of the conflict with Argentina.

However, on the down side Brown still may have to answer to the people as to how we got into this fix

[moira finnie]

Though I only have one person's perspective on the news, I think you're right, Stuart.

Gordon Brown's apparently astute assessment of the situation his financial background as former Chancellor of the Exchequer and bold efforts to shore up the erosion of banking in Britain is playing very well over here.

After the flurry of terrorist incidents that occurred immediately after Brown took over from Tony Blair, I believe that many Americans shared my sympathy for Britain and the new prime minister's efforts to calm things down while effectively putting a stop to those attempts to terrorize his country.

I wonder if the effectiveness of these economic moves will become clearer within the next year, or do you think that an election may occur very soon in Britain? Why do you think that the UK became entangled in the mortgage crisis so much?

The U.S. government, which is following his lead and buying shares in American banks to stabilize things, and the European Union's efforts coordinated by Nikolas Sarkozy appear to be having a good effect this morning on the markets in several countries. I believe that Sarkozy's sometimes brusque manner, distracted love life, and flashiness, not to mention his blunt speaking about ethnic unrest in France in the past, alienated some in his country. I wonder how he appears to the French today?

One good thing that I'm hoping will come out of this situation and the imminent election of a new, and, I hope, more internationally minded president here in the U.S., is more coordination among nations to keep mature and nascent economies a bit more stable as they aim for slower growth. Maybe America has finally started to catch on that, like it or not, (and I think NAFTA and CAFTA have not been good for the average American), to the inescapable global nature of our situation.

[stuart.uk]

I've always thought Moira that what happens in Wall Street effects the rest of the world.

The crash of 29 which led to the depression of the 1930s hit the UK as hard as it did the U.S

[ken123]

Though I only have one person's perspective on the news,

One good thing that I'm hoping will come out of this situation and the imminent election of a new, and, I hope, more internationally minded president here in the U.S., is more coordination among nations to keep mature and nascent economies a bit more stable as they aim for slower growth. Maybe America has finally started to catch on that, like it or not, (and I think NAFTA and CAFTA have not been good for the average American), to the inescapable global nature of our situation.

The US is being and has been de - industrialized over the the past 30 plus, as business has moved many of these jobs ( non - industrial also ) overseas and has payed the native workers near slave wages, under, very often, brutal working conditions. The working conditions in the US aren't always so good either, witness the beef processing plants,where much of labor is supplied by foreign born workers,who for various reasons are reluctant to seek redress. The US, or any country for that matter, cannot maintain a middle - class standard of living, without a strong industrial base. The financial speculation with its making money out of nothing was, IMHO, doomed to collapse,deregulation just made matters worse. The fact that trade unions have virtually vanished is another reason, with the help of an ( overly ) pro - business regime.NAFTA & CAFTA are just another effort by rapacious capitalism to globalize poverty.

[charliechaplinfan]

I work for one of the UK banks that hasn't been partially notionalised. To put this in perspective 3 of our big 5 banks are partially owned by the government. Our biggest bank is 60% owned by the government.

I think our problems have been brought about by the increasing dependency on credit. I think Gordon Brown is the man most to blame for our misfortunes. I hope this time he is right. I hope so much that he is right and that his solution is right for the rest of the world.

Watching the evening news, the stock market has finished higher but the banks that have been bailed out, their shares have gone down. One of their agreements is to lend at 2007 levels, I only hope they lend very responsibly.

With banking being my job, I try to keep abreast of banking news, this though almost defies logic. I understand what brought us to this, I have no idea when or how things are going to start on the up turn. I hope we've seen the worst of it.

[knitwit45]

Once upon a time, a man appeared in a village in India and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10
and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the
efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys
became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 ! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will
sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.' The villagers rounded up with all their
savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

[jdb1]

Have you watched the market climbing today, because Warren Buffett had an Op-Ed piece in today's NY Times about how he's buying stocks now? Buffett's credo is "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." And then the market started to rise.

Hmmm - I suppose if I had a gazillion dollars like Buffett, I'd live by those words as well.

Now --- if only Oprah would give us a similar pep talk. All the rest of America who hasn't yet heeded Buffett would follow, and all our worries would be over.

[NB: The two sentences immediately above were intended as sarcasm. I don't want to be accused of being some kind of unpatriotic, anti-capitalist Oprah hater.]

[NB: The immediately preceeding sentence was also intended as sarcasm.]

[NB: Etc.]

[movieman1957]

This is nothing new. Wall Street used to have big losses everytime Greenspan sneezed. Heaven forbid of someon should mishear something he said.

Oil markets work much the same way. A fistfight breaks out in a bar in Nigeria and oil was up $5 a barrel. This presumably would lead to civil war and a host of problems that would decrease output.