G'day all,
Mebbe not just Japan!
Everyone hear messrs Buffett and Bezos this morning? 'Git th' hell out' was
what I heard. So did lotsa others. Take a peek at the Nasdaq (oh, and it
ain't going straight to the Dow either. And whatever Japanese cappos are
doing with whatever they've salvaged from the Nikkei, it certainly doesn't
look like they're parking it on Wall St this time. Methinks we might find out
soon just how close the equity markets are to the 'real economy'. If the
foreign money stops coming, the margin calls start sounding, and the
buy-back/merger-frenzy bites back (I notice British shareholders greeted the
news of that big merger this morning by dumping their stock) we could all be
staring the harsh truth of the Us's current account deficit, the unprecedented
indebtedness of its consumers, and the enormous leverage ratios of many US
non-finance corporations right in its unblinking face. Now, would Saint
Greenspan drop interest rates to save margin-callers and CEOs or raise 'em to
save the greenback and keep afloat all those economies reliant on US consumption?
And if it does go pear-shaped, are people gonna blame the state ('Greenspan
shoulda let the market do its thing') or are they gonna rethink the wonder of
efficient markets? I mean, does the state take another legitimation hit, or
is the pendulum gonna turn away from markets again. Until next time the state
proves it can't do the trick that the market before it couldn't do, that the
state before it couldn't do, that the market before it couldn't do ...
What a hopeless cycle, eh? Someone oughta do something about it.
Oh, and I see that Saddam is utilising the 'Indefatigable Arab Stalwart' image
Washington has handed him by offering the Palestinians thousands of Iraqi
volunteers to help them in their struggle. Seems to me that'd leave Tel Aviv
and Washington in the middle of a mess of
their own making ... and with SERIOUS chain-reaction potential.
I was gonna talk about Indonesia's own chain reaction potential, too - but I
seem to have reached my doomsaying limit for now.
Sigh,
Rob.
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