Depression. A global one.
Very real possibility now. Edging towards the likely category.
Forget the worries about nationalizing the assets of failed firms. Forget the national debt. This is crunch time. Do or die for the financial system. Of course, I'm not holding out much hope given how weak the US has become.
Time for a rethink. This election may actually be all about who is going to manage the aftermath of the financial and economic carnage that has just started.
Nice:
Bernard Connolly, global strategist at Banque AIG, said the Fed and the Treasury were doing too little, too late, to stave off disaster. "Unless there is a very rapid change of mind, depression - with all its horrors and consequences - will be inevitable. The judgment that letting Lehmans go would not create systemic risk depended, if it was ever going to be anything other than ludicrous, on very rapid action to shore up the financial system. Instead, Hank Paulson seems to be adding to the risk in the system," he said. "We fear that a virtual nationalisation of the financial system will now be necessary."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/18/ccambrose118.xml
(It should be noted that there are considerably more optimistic quotes from other people in that article.)
Posted by: Walter | September 18, 2008 at 05:53 PM