If some thought (as happens) that I was overreacting with the “Recession”, it’s now clear we haven’t seen the end of the tunnel yet. People are losing their jobs everywhere.
The Obama team looks impressive, except that some of the members are actually part of the “brains” who invented all those great financing tools (= weapons of mass destruction, they weren’t in Iraq, they were at home). The team will have a very hard time to get through this mess. But if they don’t succeed, who could?
Of course, some stayed blind and probably will remain so. Here’s a nice quote from a certain senator Phil Gramm, from 2001:
“Some people look at subprime lending and see evil. I look at subprime lending and I see the American dream in action”.
So far for the wise words. American dream, yeah. For some crooks to enrich themselves and then ask for money from the government to “save the economy”.
China handles it a bit different. The leader of a bogus scheme to breed ants who conned investors out of US$ 439 million was recently executed. Let’s send the Chinese to Wall Street.
As noted earlier, the signs are on the wall since some time, also for China that depends (too much) on exports:
– global demand for container ships has fallen by nearly 50% this year
– China: 34% drop for new ship orders in China (globally down by 27%)
– Shanghai container traffic target for 2008: down 5%
– shipping cost per container Shanghai to Europe down from US$ 1000 (January) to now 200.
Those are the little things that tell you what to expect.