Who knows where or when the crisis will end?

So rather than help solve the crisis, the Treasury has actually contributed to the biggest problem in the market right now: an utter lack of confidence.
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The Perils of a Toxic Relief Fund

But it’s almost inevitable that the most irresponsible market players will end up getting the greatest relief.
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What brought down Wall Street?

Financial crisis arose from bad choices, greed, and failure to learn from mistakes
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Can Bailout Salve the Financials Woes?

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Financial turmoil: What should private investors do with their money?

Friday’s rally – the largest one-day rise ever – will not be repeated next week. Indeed, it is highly likely that smart City investors will take some profits on Monday.
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Is It Safe To Get Back Into Stocks?

• The curb on short sales is giving the market a big lift now, but what happens in two weeks when the ban expires?
• But for investors trying to figure out what to do now after a tumultuous week on Wall Street, market pros have some simple advice: don’t rush back into stocks.

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Hedge funds accept curb on activity but warn artificial market is no cure

• Ban in itself will not bring back investor confidence
• Data suggests blame for crisis may be misplaced

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CIC dashes talk of Morgan Stanley stake deal

China Investment Corp yesterday dampened speculation that the sovereign wealth fund could be ready to increase its stake in United States investment bank Morgan Stanley.
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The Pain of Selling a Home for Less Than the Loan

Many Americans are discovering an unfortunate twist to the housing crisis: even after selling a home and moving away, they might have to keep paying on it for years, even decades.
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US investors dumped Asian stocks before current crisis

In Singapore, they let go of net US$897m of shares in Q2
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SEC halts short-selling of financial stocks

Temporary stop to routine practice in wake of Lehman Brothers’ demise
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Morgan Stanley may sell 49 pct stake to China sovereign wealth fund

Morgan Stanley is in talks to sell a stake of up to 49 pct to China’s sovereign wealth fund in an effort to ensure its survival and reverse a slump in investor confidence, the Financial Times reported.
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Mothers return to nature for milk

Breastfeeding back despite obstacles

Chen Shuzhen of Beijing Maternity Hospital said the rising incidence of Caesarean births affected women’s ability to breastfeed.
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SEC weighs broad move on short-selling

Amid the spiralling market crisis and mounting pressure from lawmakers, the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering taking the dramatic step of temporarily banning the routine practice of betting against company stocks.
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Japan agriculture minister quits over tainted rice

TOKYO - Japan's agriculture minister resigned Friday over widespread sales of mold- and pesticide-tainted rice used to make lunches for thousands of schoolchildren and nursing home patients.
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Singapore-listed China stocks - JPM

View with a cautious eye
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Middle East sovereign funds steer clear of U.S. deals

As the entire U.S. investment banking industry seems to teeter on the brink of disaster, investors are asking: Where are the Middle East mega-funds, flush with oil money?
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German bank is dubbed ‘dumbest’ for transfer to bankrupt Lehman Brothers

Just as the rest of the financial community was scrambling to get its money out, a state-owned German lender gave Lehman Brothers what might be called a parting shot in the arm, transferring €300 million to the investment bank on the same day it declared insolvency.
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S-Chips Risky, May De-Rate Further - JPMorgan

0034 GMT [Dow Jones] Singapore-listed China stocks, or S-chips, should be viewed with caution, says JPMorgan. Broker warns S-chips may de-rate further, not yet trading at trough level discount to China, Singapore small-mid caps. Says, "despite the deep price correction, we are not optimistic about investors' interest in the battered sector, which is vulnerable to flights to quality due to the perceived high risk profile." Broker does not see benefit even with potential revival of China QDII flows, as initial flow is expected to head towards bigger-cap names listed in Hong Kong or New York. Broker screens S-chips for potential warning bells such as lack of sufficient disclosure and high gearing; S-chips that came up as having potentially worrying qualities included Yangzijiang (BS6.SG), FerroChina (F33.SG), China Hongxing (BR9.SG), Synear (Z75.SG), Li Heng (E9A.SG). (KIG)

Taiwan changes writing system

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Italian prostitutes to dress as nuns

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What is the difference between a Chinese bank and an American bank?

(A) The Chinese bank has money in it.
(B) There is no difference. They are both supported by the RMB.

What is most ironic about this is the fact that 5 years ago (while American banks were taking on a stupid amount of risky mortgages), they were lamenting the fact that China has 20-30% non performing loans in the system… that the risk assessment and management mechanisms were a fraud..

Interesting how only 5 years later all the big Chinese banks still exist, and now the American banking and mortgage system is going to undergo an overhaul we haven’t seen since Bretton Woods.

Keeping China in Context

Is Your AIG Insurance Policy Safe?

If you have a life, home, auto or long-term care insurance policy with AIG, you probably have one question on your mind: will the struggling insurer be able to meet its financial obligations? Here's what you need to know.
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Bloomberg says ‘next wave’ of financial crisis may be foreigners no longer buying US debt

York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned Wednesday a “next wave” of financial pain may come from overseas if foreign entities stop buying U.S. debt.
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Fund managers bracing for recession: survey

Risk appetite at new lows; markets down 7% but valuation not seen improving
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Internet Gets Smarter

The Internet got smarter this week with the release of a semantic map that teaches computers the meanings behind words - and gives the machines a vocabulary far larger than that of a typical US college graduate.
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SEC May Require Disclosure of Hedge Funds’ Short-Sale Positions

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may require hedge funds to disclose their short-sale positions and plans to subpoena the funds’ communication records in an effort to stem turmoil in stock markets.
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Crisis will worsen: Soros

LONDON - US FINANCIER George Soros warned in a television interview Tuesday that the turmoil in the financial markets was far from over, with Britain likely to be the economy most badly hit by the crisis.
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Demise of Hedge Fund?

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Worst of Crisis Ahead, More Banks May Hit Trouble: IMF

The worst of the financial crisis may still lie ahead and more major financial institutions may face trouble in coming months, IMF director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday.
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Redemption Pressure Likely To Stay - Fund Manager

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Macquarie Slumps; Denies Reported Refinancing Problem

Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia’s biggest investment bank, fell to its lowest in more than four years in Sydney trading as it sought to defuse speculation of a potential funding shortfall.
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The Mortgage Bailout That Doesn’t Apply

Unlike the rescued Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, sound liquidity means China’s property market doesn’t need life support.
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Home Mortgage Lending Sags in Shanghai

According to the Shanghai branch of the People’s Bank of China, residential mortgage loans totalled 290 million yuan in August, sharply less than the 2.8 billion yuan borrowed in July.
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Investors fret over Lehman’s Minibonds

Distributors waiting for unwinding instructions from bankrupt US bank
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DBSV Issued Note to Avoid 4 Stocks that AIG is Holding

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China paying the price of news blackout on food safety

China’s Communist Party should realise that when it gags the media to try to make the Chinese government look good, it is doing so at the risk of the life and health of the Chinese people. And when the world finds out, the price China has to pay in terms of its reputation far outweighs whatever short-terms gains it had made.
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SGX Top 10 CFD Counters

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Top Economist, Nouriel Roubini, Says American Depositors Should Worry

A top economist said Monday Americans with money in the bank should be concerned about their deposited assets, a warning that comes on the heels of another massive financial institution failure.
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Capitalism - It’s Painful, But it Works

I fail to see why garbage collectors in Gloomsville should pay taxes so that $1,000-an-hour bankers can retain their seats at the Wall Street casino. They had their fun and they lost their chips. Correction, they lost other people’s chips.
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Dog bites off own tongue after beating by master

A Tibetan mastiff in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, bit off its own tongue and died after a thrashing by its owner.

The owner, surnamed Pan, beat the dog for fighting with another dog in order to teach it a lesson.

"I felt so regretful," Pan said afterwards. "My friend who has kept Tibetan mastiffs for 20 years told me that they are the king of dogs and have strong self-esteem.

"If you beat a mastiff in front of other dogs, it feels ashamed and will kill itself to keep its dignity." he added.

US playing financial Russian roulette

WILL the US 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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The end of Wall Street as the bankers knew it

For one thing, if the Federal Reserve is going to act as a lender of last resort to broker-dealers facing liquidity problems, which is pretty much what it has been doing for the last six months, then the Fed will have to play a role in supervising them, too.
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SEC to act on short selling abuses

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Inflation Fades, Rising Risk to Growth - DB

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Oil Prices Likely to Keep Falling Despite Big Drop

Oil prices, which plunged nearly $6 on Monday as the Wall Street crisis rattled investors, is likely to continue falling even more, experts say.
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HSI Weekly Chart

HSI rebounded off 76.4% Fibo at 18035 today with a bullish star candlestick. Gap to close is 19157 and then test 61.8% Fibo at 20687.

Brazil declines Saudi invitation to join OPEC

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Hard Fall for a Venerable Firm

It’s the end of an era for Merrill Lynch, the brokerage firm that brought Wall Street to Main Street.
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Fed Takes Steps to Aid A.I.G.

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Dr. Marc Faber Commentary

So, what could happen in the next few weeks is a rebound in the Euro, which is oversold near-term, and a rebound in equities and selected commodities.
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Mainland property developers are expected to be under pressure to cut home prices

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China May Lower Rates Again, Increase Spending to Spur Economy

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US Storm Won’t Hit AIA Policyholders

It maintains separate insurance funds for policies
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Malaysia's Anwar says he can form govt, wants meeting with PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday he has enough support to topple the government and wants to meet with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to discuss a handover.

A hint of confidence in mainland Chinese markets

The longest-term investors in stocks listed in mainland China - controlling shareholders and some foreign funds - have started to buy again, suggesting that they see value in a market that has plunged by two-thirds in the past 11 months.
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Jittery road ahead for global markets

“After committing to JPMorgan and Bear and the involvement in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Peta said, “the government seems to have concluded: if you spare the rod, you spoil the investor.”
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The FED

If the Fed really wants to make a bold statement, using rates as the device, it should lower rates by 50 bp, not 25 bp. Does that solve the problems at hand? No.
By Paul Markowski
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World May Face ‘Japan-Like’ Economic Stagnation, GIC’s Tan Says

The world may face “Japan-like” economic stagnation as turmoil in financial markets weighs on growth and challenges the ability of policy makers to manage the crisis, Government of Singapore Investment Corp. said.
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S-chips are 2008’s worst performers

But survey of FTSE ST indexes shows other stocks are not much better off
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US in ‘once-in-a-century’ financial crisis: Greenspan

The United States is mired in a “once-in-a century” financial crisis which is now more than likely to spark a recession, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Sunday.
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‘Tectonic’ Shift on Wall Street as Lehman Fails, Merrill Sold

Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, said the independent securities firm model is “fundamentally flawed” and that every securities firm will need to combine with a bank to gain a deposit base and greater access to loans from the Federal Reserve.
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Temasek Unscathed From Merrill Sale; Had Minimum Part

But it will all depend on how Bank of America shares do when they open Monday morning in New York.
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AIG planning big spinoff

Nation’s largest insurer will unveil restructuring effort on Monday as company races to raise cash and avoid credit downgrades.
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Banks Fear Next Move by Shorts

“It is really like taking a baseball bat to someone who is down,” said Jim Hardesty, president of Hardesty Capital Management in Baltimore. “A bunch of these guys with very large bats are circling around certain companies and banging them over and over again. It is unsportsmanlike conduct.”
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Temasek To Make About $5 Per Shr In Merrill Sale-Sources

Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. stands to make about $5 per Merrill Lynch & Co (MER) share in paper profit after selling its stake in the U.S. investment bank to Bank of America (BAC) for $29 per share, two people familiar with the situation said.
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U.S. tries to contain Lehman crisis

As Lehman Brothers raced to find a buyer on Saturday, U.S. government officials and Wall Street chieftains mapped out options to prevent an abrupt collapse of the crippled bank and arrest the downward spiral threatening other financial companies.
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Global earnings bubble is forming: Dr Doom

AN earnings bubble is in the making and many companies will see earnings disappoint next year, warns Marc Faber, aka Dr Doom
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Dawn may be approaching for hard-hit developers

The property industry has been the hardest-hit sector during the mainland’s cycle of macroeconomic adjustments
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Next casualty? Investors eye AIG

Investors skittish about further losses in the financial industry have pounced on American International Group, the beleaguered insurance company that has reported some of the biggest losses in the spreading credit crisis
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Report casts doubt on speculators’ role in high oil prices

Conventional wisdom in Washington holds that speculative money flooding into the market from index funds pushed up oil prices this year
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