Posted by seumasach on September 16, 2008
Mike Whitney
15th September, 2008
Bank of America is buying Merrill Lynch for $45 billion, AIG needs an emergency $40 billion bail-out from Uncle Sam to stay afloat, and Lehman Bros is kaput. Whew! The financial world has been turned upside-down overnight and the opening bell hasn’t even rung at the NYSE. It’ll be a rough day of trading ahead. Paul Krugman summed up the prevailing feeling of anxiety on Wall Street like this:
“Will the U.S. financial system collapse today, or maybe over the next few days? I don’t think so — but I’m nowhere near certain. You see, Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank, is apparently about to go under. And nobody knows what will happen next.”
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: failing banks, financila collapse, Lehman | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 16, 2008
Vienna’s JBC Energy linked Lehman Brothers’ demise with the steep fall in oil prices, saying the investment bank “was said to be a big player in oil markets, and its bankruptcy could explain the big sell-off yesterday.”
Were they forced to sell off the oil reserves they bought to force up prices?
CBC News
16th September, 2008
Oil prices plummeted Tuesday, falling briefly below $92 US a barrel amid market fears that the U.S. credit crisis which brought down Lehman Brothers will drag on global economic growth and restrain demand for crude.
OPEC’s production cut of 520,000 barrels a day earlier this month has failed to stem the decline. The 13-country group said oil demand in the United States fell by 800,000 barrels a day last month due to the slow economy and high prices.
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Posted by seumasach on September 16, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices closed below $100 a barrel for the first time in six months yesterday, tumbling in another dramatic sell-off as the demise of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch deepened worries about the economy.
Crude prices shed more than $5 a barrel and have now given up virtually all their gains for the year, extending a steep, two-month slide from record levels above $147 a barrel.
Analysts said investors feared that the upheaval in the financial sector could trigger another round of commodities liquidation — especially with Lehman likely to unwind its holdings.
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Posted by seumasach on September 16, 2008
“Goldman’s profits are likely to have been hit by a dramatic fall-out in commodity prices in August, an area in which the bank is known to take significant positions”
Neatly sidestepping the sub-prime market Goldman look to have been caught up in the commodities bubble. Note that oil has hit $92 on Asian markets this morning: the bubble has burst.
James Quinn
Telegraph
16th September, 2008
Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein is today expected to reassure shareholders in the top-tier investment bank about the outlook despite the turmoil facing financial markets following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
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Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
James Blitz
FT
15th September
The deal brokered by the European Union for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia has been slammed by Nato’s top official as “not acceptable” because it cedes too much ground to Moscow.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Russia in Europe | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
CNBC
NEW YORK – Shares of Washington Mutual Inc. fell sharply Monday, as the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. rattled the broader banking sector.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: financial collapse, wamu | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | September 16, 2008
The Australian
THE NSW Government was under pressure last night to bail out local councils that stand to lose a total of about $200 million in the bankruptcy of US investment bank Lehman Brothers.
The bankruptcy has left the councils with little prospect of recovering any money they had invested in securities marketed by Lehman that turned out to be almost worthless.
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Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
Shares in one of Britain’s biggest banks plunged by 35 per cent today as markets reeled from the shock collapse of US-based Lehman Brothers.
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Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
The crisis gripping the US financial markets shows no signs of ending after an unprecedented weekend of drama
Richard Adams
Guardian
15th September, 2008
Has Wall Street ever seen a weekend like the one it has just been through? Perhaps, in the depths of the great depression – but nothing in recent memory, not even the collapse of the hedge fund LTCM 10 years ago, comes close to the drama and crisis that the US financial system is going through.
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: AIg, financial collapse | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
Whilst Gordon has now got the idea and is intent on shovelling every last penny the way of the bankers, a problem has arisen: such a policy would sink the £ and the City’s financial primacy with it. The empire is in a quandary.
Bank of England governor threatens to resign if Brown forces through state-backed mortgages
By James Cusick, Westminster Editor
Sunday Herald
THE GOVERNOR of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has privately warned Downing Street that he will resign if Gordon Brown directs the bank to become the key agency in a state-backed mortgage guarantee system.
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Posted by seumasach on September 15, 2008
“The numbers are too daunting,” said a senior executive at a large private-equity firm. Given AIG’s huge balance sheet, “we just don’t have enough capital to fill the hole.“
Insurer Looks to Sell Automotive Business, Annuities Unit;
It Seeks $10 Billion in Fresh Capital as Downgrade Threaten
By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG, LIAM PLEVEN and PETER LATTMAN
September 15, 2008
WSJ
Insurer American International Group Inc., succumbing to relentless investor pressure that drove its shares down 31% on Friday alone, is pulling together a survival plan that includes selling off some of its most valuable assets, raising more capital and going to the Federal Reserve for help, people familiar with the situation said.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: American International Group, financial collapse | Leave a Comment »
