A week is a long time in politics, but apparently it was even longer in world finance. This was the week that your correspondent had planned to be a week filled with leisurely walk with the missus and the kids at malls, trialing that new oma fiets recently bought and perhaps even a sip or two of the nouvoeu vines bought recently. Alas that did not exactly happen.
As would become rather obvious by now, instead the week was spent glued to the telly and or surfing that bastion of western newsmedia, CNN.com. The last time your correspondent formed such attachments to the twin tubes of tv and internet was during the September 11 attacks. Though the causes are markedly different, the sinking feeling is oddly similar.
To make things worse, there does not seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. The worrying thing is that this crisis seems to have a life of its own. The oft-cited "the index has hit its lowest level since somany years" well hit a new low the day after. Why buy now when you can buy it cheaper tomorrow?
Such is the life of the monster though that the governments seemed powerlesss to put a stop to it. It is also frustrating to see that the governments have even gone to the extend of nationalizing insurance companies, investment banks and building society. At least this has not been the tactic chosen by our dear president and let's hope he is not tempted. Governments across the world don't have a good track record of running insurance companies for example. Is this the time for them to dabble their hands into the companies ?
Friends I spoke to have advised to keep our seatbelts on. Most seemed to agree that though this situation maybe a holding pattern, the ground is not visible yet. A thick fog of uncertainty and panic is blanketing the situation and the best thing to do may well be not to make any rush decisions. Alas the irrational exuberance of panic investors may well be the fitting match to the same irrational exuberance which started this giddying crisis in the first place.
As would become rather obvious by now, instead the week was spent glued to the telly and or surfing that bastion of western newsmedia, CNN.com. The last time your correspondent formed such attachments to the twin tubes of tv and internet was during the September 11 attacks. Though the causes are markedly different, the sinking feeling is oddly similar.
To make things worse, there does not seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. The worrying thing is that this crisis seems to have a life of its own. The oft-cited "the index has hit its lowest level since somany years" well hit a new low the day after. Why buy now when you can buy it cheaper tomorrow?
Such is the life of the monster though that the governments seemed powerlesss to put a stop to it. It is also frustrating to see that the governments have even gone to the extend of nationalizing insurance companies, investment banks and building society. At least this has not been the tactic chosen by our dear president and let's hope he is not tempted. Governments across the world don't have a good track record of running insurance companies for example. Is this the time for them to dabble their hands into the companies ?
Friends I spoke to have advised to keep our seatbelts on. Most seemed to agree that though this situation maybe a holding pattern, the ground is not visible yet. A thick fog of uncertainty and panic is blanketing the situation and the best thing to do may well be not to make any rush decisions. Alas the irrational exuberance of panic investors may well be the fitting match to the same irrational exuberance which started this giddying crisis in the first place.
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