| Economy-Economics- World
Rob Kall: Screw the Bandaids. Pull the Goddamn Knife Out (32 comments) Congress is playing the snuff videographer role-- in the worst kind of reality show imaginable. Tuesday, January 22: Mary Ann Gould: Financial Crisis in America (9 comments) "It's the dollar, stupid" and it's getting close to payback time. The expanding economic crisis is NOT primarily due to the sub-prime mortgage market problems! Yet the sub prime mortgages will be blamed. That is bullsh*t . George Washington: World's Largest Bond Insurers Collapsing? (2 comments) The mortgage and stock market crash is on everyone's lips. But a financial analyst says that the two largest bond insurers are also collapsing, which could have equally devastating effects on our financial system. Bill Burkett: Tuesday's "Talking Points and Directives from the White House"- (2 comments) Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall? For the political junkie, today would be the day to receive the daily White House directives and talking points following the worst World Stock Market meltdown since 9/11.
January's Plunge Has Been Dizzying; Now, the Good News
Forget the "January effect," the traditional boost stocks got from new money flowing into the market after the new year. The few weeks of trading in 2008 have turned out to be among the worst ever for the stock market. And Monday's plummet in the global markets and yesterday's scary opening hours in the U.S. would seem to test the theory. But the day ended with U.S. stocks showing just modest declines. To be honest, I've never thought the January effect made much sense. Supposedly, stock prices are depressed by tax-loss selling before Dec. 31, and then bargain hunters rush in after the new year. But what about years in which there were few losses, and hence not much tax-loss selling? And why did stocks with big gains rise as much as those subject to tax-loss selling? Perhaps 2008 will also test the theory that stocks rise in election years.
Faulty cable blacks out internet for millions
Tens of millions of internet users across the Middle East and Asia have been left without access to the web after a technical fault cut millions of connections. The outage, which is being blamed on a fault in a single undersea cable, has severely restricted internet access in countries including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and left huge numbers of people struggling to get online. Observers say that the digital blackout first struck yesterday morning, with the Egypt's communications ministry suggesting it was caused by a cut in a major internet pipeline linking it to Europe. The line in question runs under the Mediterranean, from Palermo in Italy to Alexandria in Egypt. It is not clear what caused the break. The cable is one of only a handful of connections, and part of the world's longest undersea cable, 24,500 miles long, running from Germany, through the Middle East and India before terminating in Australia and Japan.
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