New World Order

IT WAS a day of desperate global action, unprecedented in both scale and cost, intended to stymie the international devastation being wrought by the financial crisis. As the London stock market steeled itself to open again following days of vicious battering, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, rose to stake the future of the country and the Cabinet on an audacious £500 billion banking bail-out.

And barely had the City begun to digest the hugely complex and unorthodox scheme when it was sent reeling again by an unscheduled interest rate cut – mirrored across the world – by the Monetary Policy Committee. It was the first such co-ordinated approach since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 – yet another indicator, had one been needed, of the gravity of the situation.

We're talking about some real money here...

CREDIT CRUNCH IN NUMBERS

So what could £500bn buy?

• Four-and-a-half NHS's (based on annual UK health budget)

• Six UK education systems (based on budget for 2008-9)

• 55 UNs (based on its annual budget)

• 20 Beijing Olympics

• 1,250 Scottish Parliaments

• Seven Vietnam wars

• Four-and-a-half Iraq wars

• South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Tunisia, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo, Chad and Malawi combined (based on their GDPs)

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Anyone seen George Soros lately?

Soros believes America is essentially living off the reputation of the dollar and is headed for a fall. The only reason the U.S. Treasury will be able to come up with $700 billion to bail out the banks is that China will lend us the money. But countries are getting tired of accepting a currency that is worth less and less. At some point there is going to be a run on the dollar and every American could lose a significant portions of his wealth overnight. George Soros, on the other hand, will do well. He's shorting the dollar.

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