Posted on 08/21/2008 8:08:33 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Warning: Worldwide wipeout ahead
Think US stocks are on a life raft? Look around the globe, where seas are much rougher. This is serious, folks. Brace for a brutal riptide of more economic upheaval.
By Jon Markman
It barely seems possible that anyone is more pessimistic about corporate earnings prospects than American shareholders right now, with the U.S. stock market down almost 15% for the year and the banking system coming unglued before our eyes.
Yet if you take a moment to look around the world, you may be surprised to learn that U.S. stocks are the picture of health compared with their counterparts worldwide. And measured against the gloom in bonds, U.S. stocks are like a sunny day in spring.
Time to gloat? Not on your life. For if there's one thing we know about global markets these days, it's that they seldom diverge for long. So while it might be tempting to look with pity at investors across the seas and in other asset classes, it's more likely that U.S. equities will plunge than that foreign equities will float higher toward our perch.
Just spin a globe to see a few examples from the world of truly Olympian value destruction:
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.moneycentral.msn.com ...
Ping!
Such tripe BS. There are problems in the world today and here in the States, sure, there always are the more successful anything becomes.....but that does not mean the sky falling...It isn't....and 5 years, then 10 years, then 15 years from now.....Each will "really" be the time the sky is falling (this time)....and so the pessimist circle goes...
Blah, blah, we’re all screwed, blah blah.
If true, there ain’t a damn thing that me worrying about it is going to change, I’m not wealthy enough to benefit or be affected, and there’s nothing I can do anyway.
So I’m off to bed.
I thought this was going to be another supercollider story.
FR protocol demands a shower as well
Collapsing world markets will be good for the US, as our stock market will become a safe haven for foreign investment and the Dollar will rally, coupled with global downturn in oil demand lowering oil prices.
That's great for exporters, right? /sarc
It's not like companies like IBM don't get any revenue from oversea operations /sarc
Beware Y2.01k!
110 banks with $850 billion in assets to fail by next July, which is eight times the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s reserves.
Aren't there 7,500 banks? Didn't about 100 banks fail along with the 747 thrifts? Didn't that mess cost taxpayers around 300 million 1980's and 90's dollars?
I think the total bill came to 300 billion, not million.
I did a cursory search anyway and found this:
"The RTC was in existence for six years, closing its doors on December 31, 1996. During its existence, it merged or closed 747 thrifts and sold $465 billion in assets, including 120,000 pieces of property. The direct cost of resolving the failed thrifts amounted to $90 billion; however, analysts claim that it will take approximately 30 years to fully bail out the savings and loan associations at a cost of approximately $480.9 billion."
I’ve read Markman’s columns for several years. They’re interesting, but he is a PermaBear(TM). He never has anything good to say. Of course he will be right some day, due to the Stopped Clock principle.
Should I buy some more bulk rice?
Yup. Four...one is even an Australian Shepherd.
It's not like most Americans use imported oil or anything. /sarc
You well know that a strong dollar has it's upsides and it's downsides, and they are flipped around with a weak dollar.
It's becoming clear that the dollar vs. the Euro has fell too far, hence the short term rally we've seen. I would expect the dollar to end it's plunge and stabilize somewhere above where it is now, but not too far.
I also expect that if, and it's a big 'IF,' the asian markets start tanking as this article implies, then as in most past asian recessions we will see a flight to quality into the US markets, and maybe the Dow can break out of it's trading range it's been stuck in for the last decade.
(Note, this is a log chart:)
Ping.
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