$4 trillion evaporates from the Us market in 10 days

Wallstreet took a bad beating with an estimted $2,400,000,000,000 dollars of value evaporating into thin air this past week. how much of that loss was eaten by the pension and retirement plans of the working classes ? how many nest eggs were devoured by the crooked casino known as wallstreet ?

to make matters worse, mainstays of waning Us manufacturing power, ford, gm and chrysler have been rumored in serious trouble, struggling just for enough cash to keep their plants open amidst deeply slumping new car and truck sales during the credit crunch resulting from the subprime housing crisis. the dow jones dipped below 8000 this week from a high of 14,000 only a year ago.

japan's nikkei dropped 10 percent in single day. egypt's caes index dropped close to 30% in two days.

indonesia, russia, and ukraine were forced to suspend trading on their respective stock markets as a result of steep plunge in prices. for russia it was the 10th time since mid september that trading had to be suspended.

brazil's bovespa index dropped about 21% in the past five trading days.
according to bloomsberg's , russia's key micex index has lost 66% of its value this year while china's key economic index, the csi300 lost 62% , and india's sensex has dropped by 44% .

iceland's banking industry collapsed despite an $8 billion emergency bailout from russia. as mentioned, brazil took steep loses in its market also, while mexico's peso plunged about 13% in value. hungary's budapest stock exchange fell to it lowest level in 3 years and latvia's key index fell to the level of it's 4 year low.

france and germany are attempting to coordinate efforts in firewalling against this financial contagion as england announces plans to increase its own bailout fund to shore up its troubled banks.

strangely now , talk in the euro-zone includes options of individual governments in the euro-zone each nationalizing interests in their troubled banks. governments would step in buy up shares in the troubled banks and own them in the name of their citizens to protect their national interest.

it is perhaps ironic that in the frenzy of globalization at the lead into and beginning of this millennium, the Us and the europeans were highly insistant that developing nations abandon any attempts they had made to protect their own precarious industries , businesses and resources through the vehicle of nationalization.

loans from the world bank and the imf ( "world bank" and "imf" read as "the developed nations" ) were made contingent upon already desperate third world nations giving up the nationalization of industries as a means of protecting the interests of the developing nations' citizens' ownership of their nation's industries and resources.

the west demanded that developing countries open up nationalized industries to western investment --exposing these once protected fragile vital industries and resources to western speculation, western manipulation and exploitation --all in the name of "freemarkets" --a term which we now painfully see means the wealthy loot the poor and middle classes for the benefit of the west's gaggle of wealthy amoral plutocrats who never play the game fairly or in a way that is equitable and beneficial to the most people.

this banking collapse shows we have socialism for the rich and dog eat dog "free market dynamics" for the middle class and poor. the crisis shows the developed , economically powerful nations of the world reserve nationalization and protection of THEIR vital industries, businesses and resources for themselves as an option while demanding that developing nations give up the option of nationalization when it blocks the west from sucking third world nations dry.

a nationalized oil industry once created by the baath party in iraq that financed universal free education for every iraqi from kindergarten to university and clean drinking water and universal health care for every citizen in iraq, has been ripped apart by the Us in an iraqi constitution written in part by neo-con strategist grover norquist.

this global crisis and financial meltdown illustrates once again that the plutocrats and developed nations constantly admonish the rest of us about individual responsibility and the glory of free market forces , but when those same market forces punish them for their greed and lack of due diligence --pointing out their own hypocrisies, we can clearly see they live by the credo, "do as i SAY not as i DO."


Investment | 08.10.2008
Germans Stockpiling Gold Amid Market Panic
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Gold dealers can't keep up with the demand
German gold dealers have stopped taking new orders for the precious metal as demand has skyrocketed. Gold is seen as a safe investment during the market turmoil.

In uncertain economic times, Germans are dumping stocks and shares to take refuge in precious metal, according to a Wednesday article in a Berlin newspaper.

German gold dealers report running low on stocks of gold bars and coins.

Heiko Ganss, head of the Berlin branch of gold merchant Pro Aurum, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that most gold traders were refusing new orders, as they couldn't meet the current demand.

"Demand is running well above our capacity to supply," he was quoted saying, saying retail banks in Germany were also unable to meet demand.

"Exploding demand"

Gold traded in London at $913 (656 euros) per troy ounce on Wednesday morning, up from $876.75 late Tuesday.

"Demand has exploded in the past few days," said Stephan Henkel, a gold broker at Umicore, which presses gold bars and coins and puts them on sale. Delivery times were running at two to four weeks.

"Currently, demand is about 10 times what it is at normal times," he said.