Crisis "could make 1929 look like a walk in the park"

I know this shouldn't be a day for fretting over money and the uncertainty of the future, but ... holy crap? Hopefully it's just a bit of holiday hyperbole.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/12/23/cccrisis123.xml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122302441.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

The money (sorry) quote from the Telegraph:

Interesting bit from the tail end of the story:

Leave it to the WaPo to put things in perspective:

 

Don't you hate it when you get caught between the Scylla of one thing and the Charybdis of another?

 

I had to have surgery the last time that happened...

 

Ladies and gentlemen, dooley wrote "Wrapped Around Your Finger" for The Police.

 

And Peter Spencer could be a serial killer. And "could" could be the biggest weael word in prognostication - "could" means never having to say your sorry.

 

And you know something, the Fed and the rest of the world's central banks can cut interest rates two more points -- or 200 basis points for the economic literati -- and it won't do a damn bit of good until those lending money actually resume lending money.

Therein lies the problem. While the Fed's belated 1 1/4-point cut since September is needed, it's not freeing up credit. Companies still aren't lending money and Wall Street investment banks -- with Merrill Lynch and Citigroup leading the way -- are writing down billions in subprime mortgage backed securities. On top of nobody lending money, the uncertainty of how many more shoes will drop is continuing to seize up lending because there's no outlet for the securitization (the bundling and selling of paper) of the debt.

 

so basically, shiatty dollar = staving off the death of american manufacturing. hm..

 

Lucky you. Guess you've never had a major expense come up or had to move cross country without the company paying your moving expenses.

 

As long as the dollar doesn't go like the Weimar mark ... it's a push.

U.S. goods become cheaper overseas and Euro goods become more expensive here, thus bringing in money. At the same time, U.S. stocks, bonds and money market funds are very unattractive to the Euro.

But that's only a small part of the big picture and does not include Asia.

I think there are way too many redundant economic structures in place to offset a 1929-like meltdown triggered by something as singular as a stock market crash.

But hey, a perfect storm ...

 

Sure, if you think selling huge slices of the country's major corporations to the Saudis is a groovy idea.