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The only question left is ........yes you got it, when?

So you're saying that whether we're in or out of the euro we'll still suffer from the Greek bankruptcy. Perhaps Brown is right that our present mess has nothing to do with him.
If so, it doesn't matter who tries to rule.

If the UK exit polls are right and we have a hung parliament and given the collapse of the Dow by 1000 points (9 per cent) at one time today (closing nearly 4 per cent down) and the fact that the Far East indices are down too it is reasonable to suspect that London will open sharply lower. It is going to be a dark red coloured Friday, or at least that is that risk.

Robert wrote :

"You can see why the Governor of the Bank of England said - allegedly - that the winner in this general election may soon regret its victory."

Much as I despise the Governor for his failures to see the obvious express train of CDOs coming his comments do once again show that he did know what is, and indeed was, going on - so why did he fail to manage the money supply so badly?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Surely people don't think the markets react rationally?

As so many people were DENIED the right to vote, how can the result stand? Surely theremust be a scond ballot with the polling stations
staying open later?
Most people vote after finishing work.

As any political leader would know that winning this election was a poisoned chalice, and their party would be remembered by the electorate for years to come for being in power during deep spending cuts and tax rises, sitting on the sidelines during the next parliament would give them the long term advantages of being able claim that it didn't happen on their watch.
I suspect that ambitious Westminster players with an eye on their long term progression might be glad of a hung parliament, as it means the blame for what must surely follow has to be shared across the several parties that eventually get cobbled together into some form of working government.

Could you explain what a 'Fat Finger' moment is please. It sound chaotic. Thank you

Yeah, the Greeks are worried about British flu too.

They're worried about getting another 5 years of useless guvt.

GC

@ 9

I believe a "fat finger moment" is supposed to mean someone pressed one too many zeros on the numeric keypad - for example, 拢579,500 is the average household debt in the UK. Cripes.

Headless Chickens


The elections over
Labour went bust
MP鈥檚 ranting
鈥淲e have lost their trust鈥�

Flapping around
Chickens without heads
Our seats are lost
The party is dead

Blaming Tory Tony
Or Wee Goody Brown
As the whole of Labour
Came crashing down

鈥淲hat went wrong?鈥�
The numbskulls shout
Forgetting the DEAD
From a distant wars

Forgetting the underclass
The wretched poor
Forgetting the old folk
And forgetting what Labour
Really stood for

Radicalpeter

Things are normally predictable. We vote Labour in to do the nice things (build more hospitals, save the dolphins etc) and then we hate them because they ruin the country's finances. The we vote the Tories in to do the nasty things (close the hospitals, kill the dolphins etc) and then we hate them because we don't understand how the country's finances work.

This time round? Disaster. We'd better pray that a Lib/Lab alliance doesn't last long and the Tories get in quick enough - and with enough of a mandate - to do what's necessary before we turn into Greece.

Fat finger? A Fat finger does not wipe out $1 trillion of market value in various markets, including oil, especially with such low volume (relative to the drop)



The panic in the middle of the day was market makers that just disappeared, and every machine on Wall Street was trying to sell into a market that didn't exist. That was a bizarre electronic quant panic of people selling into a black hole," said Bookvar.


It's the most logical explanation, and matches up with the data. The buy side of the order book completely dried up and people were hitting the sell button. Without the big boys (Funds & banks) and their huge orders in the market it only takes a few sales to send a stock downwards. Look at Apple stock, even that was down 20%! You'd expect an order book with millions of orders waiting to be filled on a stock like that.

The chancellor Merkel may be a good administrator, but is not very good as a manager. The reason for me to say this is that I know neither what reforms she implemented since her coming to power, nor what is her plan or her strategy to overcome the consequences of the financial crisis. Rousevelt and Churchill gave good examples of how the difficulties should be dealt with in times of trouble. Merkel cannot be compared with them. Every responsible leader tries to make its nation richer, but she does quite the opposite by making Germans to bailout Greece from insolvency. And for what sake? Simply in order for Germans to have a right to say to Greeks, "We are more than friends, we are brothers and always will be". I doubt that Merkel perseives the situation adequately.

"And many will be deeply concerned that instead of listening to what markets are saying, the German chancellor Angela Merkel today said investors were simply wrong - and that she and her fellow European government heads were determined to win in what she sees as a battle with markets."

This is the only good news I've heard for a long time. Wish this determination is more than show.

Pavel #15

What exactly do you know about the policies that Merkel's government have implemented? Have you bothered to check? Do you know how the financial crisis has affected Germany?

The markets are all worried about financial contagion? Perhaps Merkel believes that she is working in Germany's best interests by helping to bail out Greece, and thereby preserving the strength and credibility of the euro?

She is walking a tightrope between the German elections who quite rightly ask why their country is helping Greece to sort out Greece's economy when she should look closer to home, and looking after Germany's interests in the wider political arena. Do you not see that she is there to make tough decisions on behalf of, and for the long run benefit of, her citizens (and perhaps is better informed than many of them)?

Further, why do you think that Churchill was good at how to deal with difficulties in times of trouble? He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1925 who led the UK back into the Gold Standard after WWI. This sent the UK back into deflationary spiral.

Roosevelt's policies were Keynesian in character, exactly the same type of policies that Brown's Labour party are getting so much criticism for.

If you disagree with the IMF, Trichet, and most of the Eurozone governments, then what would you have done differently? I personally believe that Merkel they all have a better perception of the situation than you or I.

Harrins