Daily Archives: October 16, 2008

Note From Switzerland: Hell Is Coming

EarthThe Swiss pride themselves in being calm, reserved people. Unlike the Spanish, English, Germans, and French, they have never given the world much trouble.

The trouble, it appears, has been visited upon the Swiss, although they do have some of the blood of the credit crisis on their hands.

For reasons no one can fathom, UBS (UBS) of Switzerland decided that it had a larger appetite for mortgage-related financial instruments than any other bank in the world. Its balance sheet became obese with the junk and forced it to take what seemed like a write-off a week. UBS has fired so many people that it is surprising it still has someone to man the switchboard.

Read More »

Posted on: October 16, 2008 – 4:37 am in Uncategorized,

Media Digest 10/16/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

NewspaperAccording to Reuters, Swiss banks are getting large amounts of capital to fight the global credit crisis.

Reuters reports that AIG (AIG) is lobbying to loosen government oversight rules.

Reuters reports that Bernanke said the credit crisis is threatening the US economy.

Read More »

Posted on: October 16, 2008 – 2:42 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , ,

Asia Markets And Europe Open 10/16/2008: Japan Off 11%

JapMarkets in Asia fell sharply.

The Nikkei fell 11% to 8,658.

The Hang Seng fell 7.6% to 14,786.

The Shanghai Composite moved down by 3.8% to 1,919.

In Europe, the FTSE opened down 2.5% to 3,980. The DAX fell 5.1% to 4,617. The CAC 40 was down 5.2% to 3,207

Data from Reuters.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 16, 2008 – 2:09 am in International Markets