Free Republic

Insight: Decoupling gives way to recoupling By Jim O’Neill Published: February 25 2008 17:01 | Last updated: February 25 2008 17:01 We have completed seven full weeks of 2008. At the close of business on Friday, many stock markets around the world, including some of the best performers of 2006 and 2007, had dropped much more than the US, whether developed or developing. For example, the previously high-flying DAX was down 15.6 per cent, virtually double the year-to-date decline in the S&P 500. So are both the high-flyers of the previous two years, China and India. Brazil, the cheapest valued...

Ins and outs of ups and downs: shaken markets face up to 'recoupling' By John Authers and Gillian Tett Thu Jan 24, 3:05 PM ET This has been no happy new year for the world's equity markets. US stocks have had their worst January in more than a century - and this sell-off has prompted both a wave of selling across the world and a truly extraordinary response by the Federal Reserve, with America's central bank making an emergency cut in target interest rates of 0.75 percentage points. By the time news of a historic trading loss at France's Société...