[Left2Right]

Helicopter Ben should have made a couple of big cuts last August and that might have made some difference. Now any cut will be too little & too late. It's not that there are an excessive number of foreclosures, per se, but rather that the reselling & repackaging of vast amounts of mortgages was done with extreme leverage & covenants on a global scale. It only took a small number of defaults in a mortgage portfolio to trigger the covenants, due the the high leverage, which started the whole ball rolling.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that when the rest of the global economy starts to take big hits, money will start flowing back into the U.S.

[ExSES]

Helicopter Ben should have made a couple of big cuts last August and that might have made some difference.

True..., but he just might be a secret admirer of Paul Volcker!

[abigkahuna]

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/01/22/afx4555465.html

Indian shares crash within minutes of opening bell; trade halted for an hour

MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - Trading in the Indian markets was halted for an hour after key indices extended yesterday's losses to shed more than 10 pct minutes after the opening bell. Trading was halted with the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share Sensitive Index 1,716.41 points or 9.75 pct down at 15,888.94,...snip...