July 2008

On the heels of a story about Spanish giant Santander buying Alliance & Leicester in the UK, it comes as good news in the marketplace that another Spanish giant, BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria), is on the prowl as well.After…

Banco Santander of Spain is using the down market to snap up some UK assets on the cheap. It has announced the acquisition of Alliance & Leicester, the former building society which demutualised in 1997, for £1.3 billion ($2.6 billion)…

Warren Buffett is a confident investor who believes in the companies he buys. As a result he said the following at his recent Annual General Meeting:"If a stock goes down 50%, I'd look forward to it. In fact, I would offer you a…

I am here on my computer in anticipation of the morning market sessions in Asian trading. Certainly, this will set the tone for an important week. While I was looking for more news on the GSEs, I was reminded of the slowing economies…

This report comes from Fin24 in South Africa.Iran on Sunday said it has discovered a new oil field in the hydrocarbon-rich province of Khuzestan with more than one billion barrels of crude in place. Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said…

From Bloomberg:Paulson Statement on Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae: Full Text July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Following is the text of a statement issued today by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson:…

According to the Irish Independent, the recent fall in Irish bank shares is due to a loss of faith in their bad debt provisions. On Tuesday, Bank of Ireland fell 14%, the largest amount in 20 years.After last week's dive in their share…

Back in 1973 when the market was going to hell in a hand basket, one London market guru offered this cheery advice:"You will need to invest in three things to survive next year's economy: Cans of food, piles of gold krugerrands and a…

For those of us who remember the Japanese rise and subsequent meltdown in the 1980s and 1990s, what is going on now is like deja-vu all over again. Except this time it is on a bigger scale. Remember Yamaichi, Nikko, Nomura and Daiwa? These…

The Times of London is reporting that Treasury Secretary Paulson is looking to infuse Fannie and Freddie with $15 billion to help alleviate market turmoil. However they cite no sources in doing so.Moreover, the $75 billion offered by…