The Oil bubble is getting bigger, will it burst soon?

The current Oil prices seem intent on reaching new heights and with the latest announcement from the US energy secretary that the low production is the only cause behind the sudden increase in Oil prices, the ball has been knocked back onto Saudi Arabia's court.

With almost every single country reeling from high oil prices and the accompanying inflationary pressures, a conference of sorts is currently underway in Saudi Arabia, between the Oil suppliers and the Oil consuming nations. The steep hike has set ramapant inflation loose with many of the countries registering double digit inflation figures. China has already been on the brink of the 'double digit' inflation quite a while before the Oil crisis started. This was on account of its economy and with the current oil rates, the inflation is bound to shoot up like anything.

Samuel Bodman's comments prior to the conference suggests that the rest of the world has but lost their patience with Saudi Arabia as well as the rest of OPEC dragging their feet on this issue. One of the key goals of this conference would be to make Saudi Arabia see reason and not cry fowl. All the eyes are on the conference and one can but hope that the Oil bubble will burst soon rather than later, for the resultant mess would be easy to cope with.

World finance leaders vow to tackle bank reforms!

The credit crunch as well as the mortgage crisis seems to be pushing the U.S economy on to the fast track towards recession and this is having effects on all the global markets. As it is, most of the major economies are facing the heat as a result of the credit crisis and the world consumer confidende has dipped rather low of late. Some of the major powers like China nd India are facing inflation in high figures and are busy seeking ways to contain the surging economy as well as the rampant inflation. At a recent IMF meeting, the mention of the sale of gold to the tune of $11 Billon by the IMF to shore up funds has highlighted the problem and made it amply clear that no one is immune to the current crisis, it is truly a global one onb almost all the aspects.
Recetnly some of the world financial leaders
met up to discuss the current situation and it was then decided that some of the financial regulations needs to be tightened up a bit so as to enable the world economy to handle the current crisis better. To some this may seem like closing the barn doors after the horses have bloted but the fact of the matter is that the current situation can get a whole lot worse and very quickly at that. In order to prevent that from happenkng as well as to be able to take a firm grip on the situation at hand, the world financil leaders have made the right decision by agreeing to regulate further and to revamp certain financial regulations. This certainly beats sitting in a corner and moping!

Clinton and obama point to Iraq war for the economy woes!

Both the democrat nominees currently in the fray point to the Iraq war as one of the main reasons for the current economy woes that seems to plague America today. Frankly that is just an oversimplification of the problem at hand, if the solution was as simple as that, we would all be so much better off. But the stark reality of the situation is that the war cannot he held to be the main culprit as the reason for the current problems and that the cause lies in the foundations of the current economic policy rather than in the foreign policy sections of the current American administration.
Too much freedom has been applied over a period of time to some of the major financial instruments with the end result being one hand has no idea as to what the other hand has done. This lack of information has led to the current imbroglio and only a correction of certain financial instruments as well as a tightening of the current economic policies is going to make the big bad bear go back to sleep!

Bernanke pours cold water on Mortgage hopes!

It seems that the end is not yet near as one may have hoped, for according to Bernanke, the mortgage crisis is far from over. For those of you how are wondering who on earth is Bernanke and why on earth should we even bother to listen to him? Well, for your information, Bernanke is none other than the Fed chief and his analysis carries a lot of weight and is much more on the mark than what you or I would have to say on this matter.

According to Bernanke the crisis is far from over and that the government may have to take some more remedial measures to help calm the waters. Of course, the query on every one's lips is what does this mean for us the common man on the street? Well, for one thing, do not go near the stock market for the next couple of days as the market sentiment is quite down and other than that, to keep an eye out on home prices since they are dropping you may actually get your hands on a property that is worth much more than what it is being sold for.

Bernanke wants the foreclosures to be either stalled or written off at least partly as such a move would bring stability to the markets. What ever else that anyone may have to add on this, one thing is for sure, the ride is far from over and that there is more excitement to come!

Bond insurers breathe a sign of relief!

With the news that Standard & Poor's affirmed its ratings for Ambac Financial Group Inc. and MBIA Inc., the Wall Street shot off as though Popeye had eaten a whole tub of spinach. These days any news, no matter the size, big or small is bound to get the markets up and going.

Everyone had thought that the Bond insurers were going to get rated down in face of their exposure to the Subprime mess, but that does not seem to be the case at least for now. For the moment, the ratings stand especially for Ambac group. Had the ratings dropped, the consumer confidence, or what little is left of it these days, would have headed all the way down. The Dow Jones industrials bolted the corral by 190 paces or to be more precise, by 190 points. Would the momentum carry on to tomorrow, let us hope that is the case indeed!

The world markets reels from Recession fears!

It is that time of the year when we all get to eat the 'humble crow' and tell all the pessimists that they were right all the time and that recession is indeed setting in. The Bush administration thought that they could hold the recession at bay with their stimulus plan and it seems to have backfired miserably.

The unveiling of the plan sent many an investor running for the hills. Lets face it, even if Bush had managed to come with a fantastic plan, the current one is not that bad, even then, it would just not be enough. Once the financial markets decide to recede, there is nothing much anyone can do but to bite ones teeth and go for the ride! That is all about what one can do at times like these!

With the Fed cutting rates at the drop of the hat, the Dollar is taking quite a beating across all of the world markets. What is more, with the Dollar no longer supporting the Oil, the prices are shooting up day by day. And the only good thing that is there for the investors to invest in, what seems to be the safest bet of all is none other than the famous 'yellow metal'. So, if you are an investor, this is where you should be heading!

It is the turn of the Merrill Lunch now!

Just a couple of days ago it was the turn of the JP Morgan to post a rather poor Q4 report and now it is the turn of the Merrill Lynch to do the same. It seems that although many people may think that the worst of the sub prime after effects are over, more and more companies are coming out with new and undisclosed losses.
The markets are getting most of their profits wiped off the board and the investors are getting quite 'antsy'.
Although Merrill Lych did post a poor Q4 report, the outlook according to it seems to be rosy. Merrill Lynch seems to be under the impression that the economy is going to recover the very next day, but that may just be a pipe dream as of yet. With people not willing to spend as much as they may have, it is going to be one tough act to pull this economy up!

JP Morgan takes a dive by 35%

It seems that none of the banks are immune from the credit crisis, with more and more banks coming out and declaring their losses, well sort of. Today, we saw the JP Morgan declare a loss of 35% as a result of bad housing loans.

The mortgage issue seems to be like a ‘blob’ that just keeps on growing and growing, swallowing the healthy profits of many a bank and institutions alike. More and more people are defaulting on their mortgage payments and this is having a kind of a free for all effect on all the world economies alike. Most of the share markets are all exposed in one form or the other to whatever takes place at Wall Street and this week has clearly shown that.

The jitters in the market is going to go on for some time to come, as we can see from the indices all across Europe and Asia go into a tizzy as soon as the reports of the ‘Wall street shakedown’ reached them.

CEO Jamie Dimon attributed this dismal performance by JP Morgan to the worse than expected results in the home equity front. But at least they can take heart in the fact that their losses are not as bad as that of the Citigroup which is now currently looking at the Middle East for a healthy infusion of cash. 'Let us take heart that we do not have to beg as of yet, we still have the stuff’ must indeed be going through Jamie Dimon’s mind right now!

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Paypal to Indian bank, made easy!

Paypal has certainly matured into a very reliable monetary portal, one through which we can all transfer our funds safely without any hassle whatsoever. I have the pleasure of being a member of Paypal for quite a while now. The changes that have taken place since I was first a member here are too many to mention here. Anyway this post is in relation to the other post that I had made on Paypal with drawl.

Like I had mentioned earlier, paypal has modified its with drawl process by allowing its Indian members to withdraw their funds directly to their bank accounts. This is a decision that has been welcomed by nearly all the Indian members, mainly because the only other option available to them earlier on, was to depend on the check. The check usually got sent through ordinary mail and most of the times, the person to whom the check was sent to, did not even receive it. The mail got lost as it usually happens and now as a result of this policy modification on the part of Paypal, we can all rest happily and withdraw our funds with no anxiety what so ever.

All you have to do is to go to the paypal members profile tab and click on 'add bank account'. Then, please follow the process set up there and you should be able to transfer your funds right away. I added my Bank account using the methods listed out b Paypal,and it was a total success. In the beginning, after having initiated my transaction to withdraw the funds from Paypal to my Indian bank account, I thought that it would not come through. Initially Paypal completed my request and sent the funds to their United states bank account. From there , it was later relayed on to my Indian bank account. The whole process on Paypal's side took only about 1 day, and then onwards, it took roughly about 3 days for the money to get credited to my account. My first with drawl was for the amount of 250$, but seeing how safe and easy it is, I do not think that I would have any qualms as far as transferring funds, small or large, anymore! Just check out the links and add your bank account! Wish you all success!

Wall street in jitters over Iran issue!

Today saw the Wall street take a loss as the jitters over the administration tough posture over the Iranian issue became all too evident. With the losses in Job being reported, the Wall street was already a bit 'shaken' but now with the Iran issue it has become all too 'Stirred' and the investors are not having much of it.
Normally a strong and resurgent Wall street would not get all that much affected by the idea of fresh tensions in the Middle East, but then again these are not normal times and they are anything but normal. With the United states already having made its feelings very clear as far as Iran is concerned, it is time for the investors to realise that reacting like this to every bit of news that comes out in the global arena is not gong to let the Wall street recover anytime soon!

OPEC forecasts more gloom on the Oil front!

I have to say that as a layman even I am pretty disappointed with the way that OPEC is handling this bullish trend in the oil prices. One would have thought that with all the resources that they have at hand, the OPEC would do more to bring down the price of Oil, but that seems to be far from happening.
It is not just the United states that is bound to be affected by OPEC's shilly shallying, but the entire world. Here, in India, the government is forced to foot the oil bill and this situation cannot go on forever. Either the OPEC acts by increasing the supplies as that will definitely bring down the price of oil or they should at the very least allow the International body like the United Nations to take over. We are all feeling the pinch of the Oil these days and it seems, according to OPEC, that we are bound to do so for quite some time to come!

the 'Ripple' effect!

With the feds cutting the rates by 50 basis points,the Indian sensex shot over the 16,000 mark posting the largest intra day gain in quite a while.this was only to be expected and the other Asian markets reacted likewise.most of the currencies rose to new heights against the U.S dollar once the news of this 'cut' hit the markets all except for one.the only currency which did not do so was the Yen and i am sure that the suppression of the Yen by the Japanese government and the Japanese central banks still continue.will this feel good feeling last,probably,at lest for the nest 2 weeks.it is like a ripple effect,every ripple creating a lot of smaller ripples and they all start from a central point.lets see what the next week brings the economic markets!

The Bulls crack the Whip!

With the U.S subprimes literally eating up all the gains that all of the world stock markets had made for the last few weeks,finally we have started seeing the Bulls cracking the whip all mover the world.of course with things the way they are it is going to be quite some time before everyone agrees that the Bulls are back and that the Bears have gone back into hibernation.
The Indian stock markets have improved smartly and so have the rest of the other world markets.what is more,the PNB Paribas bank that started off the whole mess have come out with a statement saying that they are not that exposed to the U.S subprimes.so this may have bolstered some of the traders confidence levels.but such sways in the market seems to indicate that the Dollar is weakening and it is only wise to note that fact and search for a new global currency.until now everything was pegged to the Dollar but of late many central banks have delinked from the Dollar and have linked up to the Yen.the outlook for the future is a weak dollar and a strong yen!but will the Bulls still stay around for that??

japan,united states,economy,bulls,

India outdoes the U.S and Japan by 2050!!!

Well it is common news that India's economy is surging ahead with more and more investment pouring form overseas.according to a new study,it clearly shows that India's economy will outstrip the United states and Japan by 2050 with a much more optimistic date put for 2030.
India needs to do a lot more as regards transparency and infrastructure development.but the good news,well,i should say,what is shocking experts world over is that while China had to invest more in infrastructure,be more transparent in business dealings and had to spend more on training its citizens,India spent very little on infrastructure[compared to China],still has problems with transparent business dealings and yet managed to provide quality work that turns to be better than the work provided by China.this has caused many people to take a very close look at their readings and it seems that the Two giants of Asia are in the race for the top global power.
Be that as it may,come 2050,the BRIC economies that includes Brazil,Russia,India and China will outstrip their American and European counterparts in GDP!something to much about,right?

JP Morgan goes 200% on India!

JP Morgan is looking to double its investment in India and has invested its capital of around 700 million$ in various sectors like health,cement,construction and so on.JP Morgan does not have a crystal ball so these investments and with more to come form the bank are probably a result of a detailed analysis of the Indian economy.
The U.S major is spreading its wings from banking to investment banking, corporate finance and capital market business in India.what is more.with more investment going to come about,JP Morgan is slowly but surely turning into a player who is betting on a sure thing.the recent world bank report on India has only made this more obvious to the world at large.but of course the question of economic reforms remains on everyone's mind these days.will the pace of reforms continue?going just by what JP Morgan is planning to do i would say yes!

india,united states,jp morgan,business,investment,economy,