Posted on 10/06/2008 6:41:23 PM PDT by maccaca
Asian markets take a beating straight out of the gate Tuesday as fears that the credit crisis will spark a global recession spur heavy selling. The Nikkei at one point, dropped below 10,000, a level not seen since December 2003.
The Nikkei 225 Average [JP;N225 10094.57 -378.52 (-3.61%)] dived to a five-year low shedding as much as 5 percent and sliding below 10,000 for the first time since December 2003 on growing fears over the global economy and a sharply stronger yen. ... Seoul shares fell 1.5 percent on deepening worries about the global credit crisis, sending exporting and banking issues lower, but easier oil helped some retail issues outperform the benchmark index. The government dismiessed worries that the country could fall into another foreign exchange crisis, saying local banks had no problem in rolling over their maturing short-term foreign debt. The South Korean won dropped 5.7 percent to hit a 7-½ year low against the dollar.
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I just kind of find it ironic that these things just happen to happen right before an election... the previous DOW low was October 2004 IIRC...
I don't think it is ironic. I believe it is economic terrorism.
I think it’s because people are worried that a Democrat is going to get elected to the White House.
Think what you want, but it's generally the case that bad economic news hurts the party that holds the White House at the time. Regardless of the root cause of the problem, or when it started.
The fact that financial panics almost always occur in the Fall, usually in October, was commented on more two hundred years ago.
No one is really sure why. One theory, which makes as much, or as little, sense as anything else, is that deep down in the retilian base of our brains, we feel a need to get ready for winter. A need to sell off paper investments and turn them into something more tangible, to live off of during the Winter.
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