Europe was caught out by the financial crisis and did not see recession looming, the head of the Eurogroup of nations conceded today, amid estimates that the EU has plunged into a downturn. OCt 08

‘Recession awaits us, and we didn’t think that recession lay in waiting,’ euro zone chairman Jean-Claude Juncker told members of the European Parliament in Brussels. Oct 08

‘We were badly mistaken with the different sequences of this crisis,’ said Juncker, who is also the premier and finance minister of Luxembourg. Oct 08

The European Commission in early November 2008 warned that the worst financial crisis for generations has driven the EU economy into recession and that economic growth would come close to a standstill next year.

"Increasingly, the signs point to a deep and synchronised global recession that began last quarter and has gathered momentum," said Bruce Kasman, an economist at JPMorgan Chase in New York. November 08

The eurozone’s second-biggest economy will grow by just 0.2-0.5 percent next year instead of the 1 percent previously predicted, Economy and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told the Senate.
The minister said the growth forecast for next year 2009 was “the lowest ever by a government in France” but that it was realistic.

“The international economic outlook has deteriorated much more than was expected, which will impact growth in Switzerland over the next several quarters,” the Swiss National Bank said in a statement in October 08

The sharp falls came after the Dow Jones index slid 5.05 percent on Wall Street November 7th 08 as investors braced for a gloomy economic ride after the euphoria of Obama’s election victory faded.
“Now that the event is over, investors are sobering up and looking at the economic gloom,” said Mizuho Investors Securities broker Masatoshi Sato.

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros conceded in OCtober 08 that US influence was waning: "It has already declined. For the past 25 years, we have been running a constant current account deficit. The Chinese and the oil-producing countries have been running a surplus. We have consumed more than we produced. While we have run up debt, they have acquired wealth with their savings. Increasingly, the Chinese will own a lot more of the world because they will be converting their dollar reserves and US government bonds into real assets."

Japan
By James Kirkup and Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Last Updated: 4:00PM BST 16 Oct 2008
Telegraph.co.uk
"To cope with the current crisis, further steps may be needed," Mr Aso told members of the Japanese parliament. "However, I still believe this package will be effective to a certain degree."
Mr Aso’s budget package will be mean direct financial support for farmers and fishermen paying higher fuel bills, and for Japanese consumers.
The emergency budget is part of a wider 11.7-trillion-yen package announced in August.
The Bank of Japan also made another 300 billion-yen of emergency loans to Japanese banks, hoping to unblock the Tokyo money markets. The central bank has been offering extra liquidity on an almost daily basis for a month.

euro
Author: ČTK
www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=338324
Prague – The current situation on financial markets will affect the agenda of Czech EU presidency in the first half of 2009, deputy prime minister for EU affairs Alexandr Vondra said.
The financial crisis has become a new priority of the European Union, Vondra said.
"When you are making preparations for a football match, you sometimes base your tactics more on offensive while another time you are more defensive. It is evident that in the economic situation in which Europe will be finding itself next year, emphasis will be rather placed on the protection and defence of what has already been attained," Vondra said.

Posted by Kevin Anderson Sunday October 12 2008 06.50 BST

Homelessness, the economic crisis and voting
Homelessness is on the rise in the US, and the newly homeless could find their votes challenged.
In Reno Nevada, joblessness has jumped 60% and a tent city of 170 people grew. Reno is trying to shut down the tent city and move people to newly opened shelters. CBS News has reported tent cities in Seattle, Portland, Fresno, Columbus, and Chattanooga. There are also reports of encampments in Seattle, San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio, Santa Barbara and Fresno California.
The wave of foreclosures, which in some areas of the country disproportionately affect black voters, could also come into play. The Republican Party of Macomb County Michigan, one of three counties that make up Detroit, is planning to use list of foreclosed homes to challenge people who try to vote using those addresses.
Republicans claim that they are trying to prevent voter fraud. Homeless and voting rights advocates are trying to make sure that people don’t lose their homes and their right to vote.

USA
As veteran curator of that realm of American national power upon which all others ultimately depend, Greenspan has inspired remarkable deference. He long ago tamed the legislature, to the point that, instead of exercising oversight over his tenure, Congress has ritually idolized rather than interrogated him. Greenspan’s aura has extended even to presidents of the United States. Bill Clinton went so far as to ask Greenspan in 2000 if he would like to be appointed to a fourth term as chairman, or whether he’d prefer to "go out now on top." The then 73-year-old replied: "Oh, no. This is the greatest job in the world. It’s like eating peanuts. You keep doing it, keep doing it, and you never get tired."
BY PETER HARTCHER
American Interests www.the-american-interest.com
Winter Issue

“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Greenspan conceded: “Yes, I’ve found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I’ve been very distressed by that fact.”

Mr. Greenspan said that he had publicly warned about the “underpricing of risk” in 2005 but that he had never expected the crisis that began to sweep the entire financial system in 2007.

“This crisis,” he told lawmakers, “has turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined. It has morphed from one gripped by liquidity restraints to one in which fears of insolvency are now paramount.”
NEW YORK TIMES (US)

Greenspan’s sins return to haunt us
By David Blake
Published: September 18 2008 18:39 | Last updated: September 18 2008 18:39

Back in 2002, when his reputation as “The Man Who Saved the World” was at its peak, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, came to Britain to pick up his knighthood. His biggest fan, Gordon Brown, now the UK prime minister, had ensured that the citation said it was being awarded for promoting “economic stability”.
Even as things went completely wild, Mr Greenspan dismissed those who warned that a new bubble was emerging. It was just a case of a little “froth” in a few areas. Later, after waiting until 2007, two years after he left office, he conceded that “froth” had been his euphemism for “bubble”. “All the froth bubbles add up to an aggregate bubble,” he told the Financial Times……
Mr Greenspan realises that something big has happened and describes it as a “once in a hundred years” event. But then, you do not get Alan Greenspans coming along every day.
Finincial Times (UK) Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Neoliberalism, White (Male) Privilege & the Current Financial Crisis
by Jessie on Sep 30, 2008 at 11:29 am
Make no mistake, all the available evidence suggests that the American political economy is headed for a major crash. Some are even speculating that this is the end of American economic dominance in the world’s financial market. But don’t be deceived by the blame-the-victim rationalizing that’s being floated now. Let’s be clear about what policies and which people are behind the current financial crisis: neoliberal policies and the overwhelmingly majority of economically privileged white men (photo from same link) who created, implemented and benefited from those policies.
Neoliberalism refers to a set of policies that encourage “less government” and unfettered (and unregulated) capitalism. The key elements of neoliberalism include: 1) the rule of the market, 2) reducing government expenditures on social services, 3) deregulation, 4) privatization, and 5) gutting the notion of “the public good.”
The end result of neoliberal policies is that while a handful of people get very, very rich, these policies simultaneously exacerbate the suffering of just about everyone else and increase domestic and international instability. So, what we’re seeing now is just the logical, perhaps inevitable, result of these policies.

5 at 10: March Madness, MLB pitching and SEC QB’s
College basketball’s regular season has an image problem. There are too many games on TV. The season’s watered down. The talent base has been eroded by one-and-done players leaving early for the pros. Roster turnover strips fans of familiarity and teams of potential greatness.
Read more on Chattanooga Times Free Press

Anything But My Movie: Bow Wow Talks Silly Basketball Wives & Napolean Complex
VIBE: What was your first screen-name and email address? Bow Wow: [ Laughs ] Wow. My first AIM name was something simple, LBW204. I always thought AIM was for girls, so I never really got into making up a creative screen name.
Read more on Vibe Magazine

Five of the best new cookbooks
(Photo: hotosindia.com/ Photosindia/Corbis) The cookbook industry is booming and the bookstore can be as hard to navigate as the grocery store these days. There are cookbooks for every type of diet imaginable, books that aren’t quite cookbooks but contain recipes, memoirs with a food focus, books with advice on organizing your kitchen and books about topics covering the universe of culinary …
Read more on Yahoo! Green

Posted in Making Movies | Tagged MADNESS, march, Pitching, QB's