October 2008

Dropbox

29 October 2008

I feel I am due for a break from the GFC* and so will instead return to the subject of Web 2.0. Whenever I come across a new Web 2.0 site/application/service I cannot help but sign up. A quick search for the phrase “welcome to” in my gmail archives throws up about 100 messages, representing [...]

7 comments Read the full article →

Australia and the Global Financial Crisis

25 October 2008

Over the last few months I have written a lot about the global financial crisis. My posts have focused on specific events as news has broken, ranging from a programming bug by Moody’s to the enormous US bailout plan and Government guarantees from Ireland to Australia. Here I will instead take a broader perspective and [...]

25 comments Read the full article →

Australian Bank Guarantee on Wholesale Debt

24 October 2008

In a post earlier this week, I wrote The Government was right to step in with the guarantee and it has doubtless provided some stability for a financial system that remains jittery, but the sooner the details are sorted out, the better. The main outstanding question I was referring to was how the guarantee would [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Banks Covered by the Australian Government Guarantee

24 October 2008

Following the shenanigans in parliament earlier this week, the Government has modified their original 12 October media release about the Government guarantee for banks. In the process they no longer list the local and foreign banks covered by the guarantee, so with the help of Google’s cache* I am republishing the original list here. The [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Market Capitulation

24 October 2008

Apparently the sky is falling, at least that is what stock markets around the world are suggesting. The Japanese stock market fell 9.6% today, the Korean market fell 10.6% and while the Australian market “only” fell by 2.6%, the Australian dollar is now down below US$0.65. European markets are already down 6-8%. There were dramatic [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Gravatars

23 October 2008

Readers of comments on the Stubborn Mule and other blogs may have noticed the little avatars like the one pictured here. Some may even have wondered how it is that some commenters manage to display a picture of themselves. If you are one of those people, or you are now curious, read on. These avatars [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Collapsing Oil Prices

22 October 2008

The actions of Governments around the world to guarantee or recapitalise banks is starting to bring some stability to the financial sector, but markets are now expecting a worldwide economic slowdown and with it a dramatic decline in demand for oil. This has led to a collapse in the US dollar price of oil and, [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Update on the Guarantee of Australian Banks

22 October 2008

Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry, appeared before a Senate Estimates Committee today to provide some clarity on the nature of the consultation between the Government, Treasury and the Reserve Bank prior to the 12 October announcement that the Government would provide guarantees for all Australian banks. This followed yesterday’s article in The Australian which claimed that [...]

7 comments Read the full article →

Come Back Keynes, All Is Forgiven!

16 October 2008

In current phase of the GFC* we are witnessing extraordinary Government intervention in the financial markets, with a host of countries providing enormous guarantees of bank liabilities, purchasing distressed assets or directly investing in ailing banks. Switzerland is the most recent country to follow this route, injecting around 6 billion Swiss Francs (A$8 billion) into [...]

14 comments Read the full article →

US Treasury: Proud New Owner of America’s Banks

14 October 2008

The latest moves by the US Treasury in the GFC have been hitting news headlines on the screens today: US TO INVEST $250 BILLION DIRECTLY INTO BANKS US TO GET PREFERRED SHARES IN BANKS US TO INVEST IN MORGAN STANLEY, GOLDMAN, JPMORGAN, BANK OF NEW YORK, STATE STREET, CITIGROUP, BANK OF AMERICA, WELLS US TO [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries