October 2008

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has just fallen below 10,000 for the first time since 2004. Breaking through the 10,000 barrier was a huge deal on CNBC when we were partying like it was 1999, nine years ago. Essentially, we are back to…

Marshall Auerback sent me this picture from some treacherous highway. Kind of fitting.

The Guardian is reporting that Gordon Brown and his Labour Government are increasingly on the defensive as the number of governments in Europe guaranteeing deposits increases.The first problem for the Prime Minister was that Building…

Germany has moved center stage in the credit crisis despite having not experienced a housing bubble in the run-up to the bust. Switzerland and Japan, along with Germany are three countries I find notable in not having participated in the…

On the heels of weekend trouble at European banks, markets in Asia and Europe are selling off this morning. At the weekend, we learned that Hypo Real Estate, a finance behemoth in Germany with $700 billion in assets was feared to collapse.…

EU governments have woken up to the need to defend the banking system by guaranteeing all or some of their citizens' bank deposits. After Germany, Ireland and Greece, Denmark is the latest to do so. And Denmark may also be the one country…

If you were away on Holiday this past week or just away from the hustle and bustle of civilisation this past weekend, you may have missed the firework in Europe. Basically, over the past week, what started as a U.S. subprime crisis and…

Fortis, the nationalised Belgo-Dutch bank and largest private employer in Belgium. This is a good thing as I have a distinct preference for mergers over bankruptcy or long-term nationalisation as a way to hep consolidate and rationalize…

I have been a bit on edge of late because of the credit crisis that is making headlines. Recently, a lot of people have been duped into believing that the economic crisis we are experiencing is not critical and have their eyes focused…

Facing a potential breakdown in its banking system, the German government has decided to offer a blanket guarantee to private savings deposits (see comments below from German blogger egghat about this distinction), much as Ireland and…