Five years ago, investors were told there was unlimited money to be made out of the dotcom revolution — and that was true, until the point where there were no longer more buyers than sellers. The market reached that point in March 2000 and, since then, the Nasdaq has lost 60% of its value and millions of small investors have suffered.
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/ 25 November 2004
President George W Bush’s foreign policy is simple: don’t mess with the United States. The same, it appears, applies to economic policy. Last Friday, the dollar fell sharply against the euro following comments by Federal Reserve chairperson Alan Greenspan, which — by his own cryptic standards — were unambiguous. ”It seems persuasive that, given the size of the US current account deficit, a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at some point,” Greenspan said.
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/ 12 October 2004
Privatisation and trade liberalisation policies foisted on developing countries in return for financial help are often bad for the poor, according to a confidential United Kingdom government paper. The document says the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and individual governments should limit and streamline so-called ”conditionality” for aid money.
United States President George W Bush’s re-election prospects received a severe setback last week when government figures from Washington showed the United States economy was producing far fewer jobs than Wall Street had been expecting.
The 32 000 July increase in non-farm payrolls was almost 200 000 down on market predictions and led to a sharp sell-off in shares and the dollar.
Oil prices were nudging record levels on global markets this week after Iraqi insurgents threatened to blow up the country’s key southern oilfields if the Americans launched a full-scale onslaught on the holy city of Najaf. Dealers shrugged off an earlier move by Saudi Arabia to calm global energy markets after Wednesday’s frenetic trading that saw fresh concerns about terrorism.
The candidate has been anointed and he has accepted the challenge. The United States is now supposed to have an idea of what makes John Kerry tick and, in November, we shall see whether he has what it takes to do what Bill Clinton did and defeat an incumbent George W Bush. The next four years could be tough for the US and it would be fitting if Bush were left to clear up the almighty mess he has created.
For the best part of 20 years, Alan Greenspan has been a symbol of the stupidity of ageism. He became chairperson of the US Federal Reserve at 61, when plenty of workers have already been tossed on the scrapheap and many others are preparing to wind down for retirement.
The durability of the global economy was one of the three big issues at the get-together of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, held in the US recently, for while growth is stronger than was envisaged six months ago, concern about the durability of the expansion stretches from airport immigration queues to those running the global economy.
Two of Africa’s poorest countries are to receive extra debt relief from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a move Britain hopes will pave the way for a more generous approach to the Third World’s loans crisis.
The United States’s determination to write off Saddam Hussein’s -billion debt has opened the door to a more generous deal for the most impoverished countries in Africa, the head of the World Bank said this week. President Bush’s insistence on putting post-conflict Iraq on a sustainable financial footing opened the way for a fresh look at debt relief for all countries.