Financial Rescue Approaches GDP as U.S. Pledges $12.8 Trillion The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.
And CNNMoney.com provides us with a handy table/scorecard of what has been spent or pledged so far.
Soros: The Recession Could Last Forever George Soros says the G-20 Summit is the last chance to save the world, and that if they don’t the world could face a depression worse than the 30s.
Now the Long Run Looks Riskier, Too New research, using different statistical techniques aimed at capturing the uncertainty of future returns, suggests that the market may be much riskier than many investors have understood.
Why the Mining Sector Doesn’t Need Banks In the past few months, natural-resource players have gone on a $42 billion fundraising spree, in which every single dollar has come from outside the regular banking system.
March auto sales faring no better Auto sales in the first two weeks of March were down 40% compared to the same period last year, according to industry analysts at J.D. Power and Associates.
Did Goldman Goose Oil? How Goldman Sachs was at the center of the oil trading fiasco that bankrupted pipeline giant Semgroup.
Now, some of the people involved in cleaning up the financial mess are suggesting that Semgroup’s collapse was more than just bad judgment and worse timing. There is evidence of a malevolent hand at work: oil price manipulation by traders orchestrating a short squeeze to push up the price of West Texas Intermediate crude to the point that it would generate fatal losses in Semgroup’s accounts.
What transpired at Semgroup was no less than a $500 billion fraud on the people of the world,” says John Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocer turned oil refiner who is attempting to reorganize Semgroup in bankruptcy court. The $500 billion is how much the world would have overpaid for crude had a successful scam pushed up oil prices by $50 a barrel for 100 days.
What’s the evidence of this? Much is circumstantial. Proving oil-trading manipulation is difficult. But numerous people familiar with the events insist that Citibank, Merrill Lynch and especially Goldman Sachs had knowledge about Semgroup’s trading positions from their vetting of an ill-fated $1.5 billion private placement deal last spring. “Nothing’s been proven, but if somebody has your book and knows every trade, it would not be difficult to bet against that book and put the company into a tremendous liquidity squeeze,” says John Tucker, who is representing Kivisto.
Peru Stocks Go to First From Worst in Latin America on Copper, Zinc, Gold Peru’s stock market, Latin America’s worst performer last year, is the biggest gainer in 2009 as a rebound in raw-material prices helps send the economy to the fastest growth rate in the region.
Copper Use Falls 25% in 1st-Quarter in U.S., Japan, Freeport-McMoRan Says Copper demand slumped by as much as 25 percent in the U.S., Europe and Japan in the first quarter from a year earlier as construction declined, a Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. executive said.
Australian Central Bank Abandons Growth Forecast, Says Recession Is Likely Australia’s economy will probably contract this year for the first time in almost two decades amid slumping global demand for exports, central bank Deputy Governor Ric Battellino said.
WHICH WAY WILL OIL GO?
On the one hand …
Oil May Fall to $28 a Barrel Next Quarter, SocGen Says: Technical Analysis Crude oil is set to drop to $28 a barrel in New York in the second quarter, according to technical analysis by Societe Generale SA.
On the other hand …
Bernstein Says Crude Oil May Rebound to $80 in 2010, Average $50 This Year Crude oil is likely to be $50 in 2009 before falling supply causes prices to increase to $80 next year, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts said.
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