A recent and very long air flight had me catching up on all matter of reading. Happily ensconced for what would be a 7 hour flight I was surrounded by fiction, news, glamour, business, as always my desire exceeded capacity. Still, feeling very righteous- it was Kung Fu Panda or reading- no contest- I opened up the weekend edition of WSJ and was assailed by:
The Global Credit Crisis- credit crunch everywhere. From a New Zealand fund manager that froze $307.500 million of investors’ cash, to the warning that bank’s settling contracts with insurers early on could spark a rush by financial institutions to get as much capital as they can from insurers, (never mind that this could mean less protection for the rest of their stakeholders).
To Citigroup threatened by a lawsuit for alleged fraud in the marketing and sales of auction rate securities.
Not to mention the Big Three auto giants seriously compromised and sales the worst in years, or Nissan’s profits dropping 43%, BMW showing 33% less net profit and British Airways and American Airlines showing severe losses and having to lay off personnel.
And oil- unprecedented oil prices and while prices may come down- never to where they were a year ago. Weaker consumer confidence Las Vegas, Las Vegas! Having a problem and a major resort project postponed!
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