World Wide Market Meltdowns

World Wide Market Meltdowns

money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The global financial crisis escalated on Wednesday as stock markets plummeted worldwide and officials raced to put out the fires.

Investors in Japan suffered one of their worst days ever. A Russian exchange was shut down after a huge decline at the open. And a trio of European central banks announced that it was pumping more money into the system to keep banks going.

The most dramatic move was in the U.K., where the Treasury announced a plan to inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the banking system.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This event is happening on a worldwide scale. It is not just the US. The Dow jones is down 500 point already. I imagine it will become much worse. Maybe even a worldwide meltdown.

Nasdaq is down 5.8%
Dow is down 5.11
Canada's TSX is down another staggering amount.

This is becoming a bad situation altogether. Well, I guess we must sit back and ride it out.

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's happening here in Aus too. It's got a real smell to it. It feels like the top of the slide though, which is scary seeing as we've been sliding for months already.

I'm so glad Congress passed the bail out.

People I know who barely ever check to see how their 401k etc are doing have told me in the last 24 hours that they are getting out. That is telling.

reply to post by Mainer


I was going to ask someone when do you think Americans will take out their 401k. Do you think that time is soon. That's a huge chunk of your market, isn't it?

It would not be possible for the DOW to be down 500 pts already as they have not opened the floor for trading yet. The 500 pts hit you are seeing is from yesterday (the 7th). This is the same for the NASDAQ and S&P.

However, that being said, I too think we are in for one ugly day in the US stock market. I fear we have no control over this situation so my only advice is to listen to Douglas Adams "don't panic".

Obs out

hey observer, i watch the 'futures' trade on TV at 4am-opening bell,
and indeed the Wednesday Futures (before the DOW/NYSE opens) was down -350 points in reaction to the Asian Markets and the first hours of the European markets being severely down.
Its not leftovers from the Tuesday 7th NYSE trading, as you think.

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now, one thing i'd like to point out is that the world's central banks
all got together.... decided to coordinate a world-wide reduction by all central banks lending rates by .5%.

I wonder how the Asian markets feel about that??
Seeing as how the world was witnessing the severe decline for over 8 hours...
and allowed Hang Seng to drop 8.17%
allowed the Jakarta to drop 10.38%
permitted Nikkei 225 to fall 9.38%
and all the others in Asia, to shrink anywhere from 2-9% each.

the rest of the central banks, let Asia have a severe destruction of their markets & economic wellbeing...
but only decided to prop up global confidence -->before

To someone who has absolutely no idea about stocks, credit and stuff like that...

Can someone please spell it out.

All i'm hearing is blah blah blah %%%% , with no understanding as to what any of it means....

I live in the UK, should i take my money OUT of the bank or what?

Originally posted by 1011010110
I'm so glad Congress passed the bail out.

lol, i wonder what chris dodd is saying now. The good thing is that more will listen to ron paul, and questions are probably being asked by those in congress, who never asked them before.

reply to post by St Udio


Yikes, I was unaware of the future trading option (shows how little I know about the markets!). If it dropped 350 pts BEFORE it even opens then today really could be a bloodbath.

I will still try to take Adams advice though "don't panic".

Obs out

geez... is our world really so dependant on imaginary economic systems and meaningless paper currency that we are seriously in a "crisis" over this?

This is what rich people get for being greedy and letting the poor live in ignorance. Hopefully they can see what a cold, hard, and wet street bed feels like.

Originally posted by dingleberry77
reply to post by Mainer

 

I was going to ask someone when do you think Americans will take out their 401k. Do you think that time is soon. That's a huge chunk of your market, isn't it?

Yeah its the boomers. Those folks with everything for their retirement tied up into the markets. At a point they will do a collective freak-out and pull everything away for the sake of keeping anything. When that happens things will drop very fast. I think today is that day.

reply to post by Mainer


I know my mom (she is 60) has already pulled out. She did not have much in the market but her financial advisor called her and said "GET OUT NOW!!" And this was 3 weeks ago. The only stock she still has is in an oil transport company. Everything else has been liquidated and is sitting in a money market account.
That being said, if my mom (who's assests are tiny) is hauling out then I would imagine people with far greater sums are aobut to do the same thing.

My question is how it will effect the overall market? I am ignorant as to how mutual funds effect markets as a whole. I wuold assume many if not most of the boomers are in mutual funds more than regular stocks. Since mutuals are diversified in an attempt to protect the investor will a wholesale fleeing from that sector crash the system? I really don't have a clue.

Obs out

reply to post by mr-lizard


Taking your money out of the bank won't help really. Unless you suspect that you wont be ABLE to get it out. If that's the case then certainly.

However, if you don't suspect that you WONT have access to it, then leave it in there. The banks have it insured in case of failure.

The National Bank of Sealy-Posturpedic has only a relative amount of safety in itself.

Take care!

AB1

Originally posted by alphabetaone
reply to post by mr-lizard

 

Taking your money out of the bank won't help really. Unless you suspect that you wont be ABLE to get it out. If that's the case then certainly.

However, if you don't suspect that you WONT have access to it, then leave it in there. The banks have it insured in case of failure.

The National Bank of Sealy-Posturpedic has only a relative amount of safety in itself.

Take care!

AB1

The FDIC doesn't have the funds to back up all the funds in the event of a national banking meltdown, which doesn't seem unlikely.

I've heard that if just Wachovia and BOA crashed with all their customers, the FDIC couldn't replace all that money without government aid.

Absolutely true I know and you'd be right,

The guy I was replying to though is in the UK, the FDIC has nothing to do with him.



AB1

I would think pulling your money out of your 401k plan would be disastrous if everyone decided to do that.In essence the dollar would not be worth a plug nickle so your money you pull out would end up being nothing more than good fireplace starter paper. I have a funny feeling we are going to see small communities start up bartering systems for families and people to be able to survive.

Everyone pulling out of their 401k and withdrawing their money from the banks will only make this situation worse.

You have to understand, the money in your checking account and the money in your 401k is not sitting around in a vault somewhere waiting for you to decide to withdraw it. It has been invested and loaned by banks and corporations. It is NOT "on hand" for you to withdraw.

So imagine everyone withdrawing at the same time. Most won't get their money, and the system will collapse. It's a flawed and unstable system.

Think of it like a gas shortage. It starts with rumors that a gas shortage is coming. In a panic that they won't have enough gas to even get to work in the coming days and weeks, people head to the gas stations to fill up in large numbers. They make a 'run' on the gas stations. With everyone making a run on the gas stations, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The run ends up creating the shortage.

Now, we're facing an economic crisis. It starts with speculation and rumors that an economic collapse is coming. In a panic that they won't be able to get their money out of the system during an economic collapse, people head to the banks to withdraw. They make a 'run' on the banks. With everyone making a run on the banks, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The run ends up creating the collapse.

The unfortunate thing is, if you don't withdraw it, your money goes down the drain. If you do, you further the economic collapse. The only middle ground is to stop being a moron and force change. THIS is why we need the gold standard. We're spending money we DON'T HAVE!

What happens when you pull out your credit card and spend money you can't re-pay? You're in debt. Now imagine that on a national scale. Instead of credit card companies coming after you, it is other countries whom have bought up your debt. Now you owe them money. How do you re-pay it? Through national assets and interests. Through policy making. Through legislation. All of which are contrary to OUR national interest and right in line with THEIR national interest.

This is the result of apathy and ignorance. This is what happens when you do not regulate greedy corporate bastards. They take, take, and take and never give back. Eventually when they have taken all they can on the national level, they come after yours at the family level. And in the end, the economic crisis doesn't touch them. They created the system, they manipulated the system, and they'll beat the system. In the end, YOU lose, and YOU foot the bill.

I hope it was worth it to have your pathetic, childish, right vs left, democrat vs republican arguments as if it gave a damn.

Now look. Neither of your precious parties, and none of your elected heroes were there to serve, protect, and defend the people who voted them in to office in the first place. They chose to side with the one's who can't and won't be touched, and what did you do about it? Nothing.

reply to post by Mainer


My dad had about $10,000 in his 401k before these last few weeks. Just like I've been telling everyone I talk to, I told him that he needs to pull it out now and save himself the drama.

Sure enough, these last few weeks have dropped it to $5,800 as of this morning. The sad thing is, he still isn't listening. He's being 'optimistic' about it and hoping it will turn around.

I hate to call my own family ignorant, but they are. Like everyone else I know, they don't listen. It seems to be a trend in this country.