Japan is now officially in a recession, thanks to its three consecutive quarters of economic decline.  Their economy shrunk by 0.1% in this, the third quarter.  This follows after Eurozone was declared to be in a recession last week, and the US is expected to follow.  Japan’s recession is the first in 7 years, however [...]

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The US Federal Reserve bank has cut its interest for the second time this month, bringing it down another 0.5% to it’s lowest level seen since June 2004, 1%.  This has been done in order to spur economic activity among largely stagnant consumers.  The rate is used for a number of key measures, including what [...]

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The US consumer index has plummeted to an all time low of 38.0, having begun based at 100 in 1985.  This reflects the hard times that have fallen upon the US consumer quite clearly, with the subprime mortgage crisis playing a large role.  A number of large corporations have also had rounds of layoffs.  Jobs [...]

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Six central banks have recently announced a rate cut.  These include England, USA, China and Canda.  The rate cuts range between 27 and 50 basis points (where each basis point accounts for 0.01%, thus 50 basis points represents a drop of 0.5%).  This desperate move comes in order to stabilize global markets, and to stimulate [...]

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Japan’s major index, the Nikkei 225, has lost $250bn US in equity value in a single day, it’s biggest decline since 1987.  The $250bn represents 9.4% of the total value.  The global credit crunch has prompted massive sell-offs world wide, causing most major indices to decline significantly in value.
On the home front, the JSE lost [...]

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Iceland has taken over the small North Atlantic country’s second biggest bank (Landsbanki) in an attempt to stave off national bankruptcy.  Iceland’s banks are struggling to stay afloat after taking on massive debts overseas.  Russia will be providing a loan of over $5bn US in order to help rescue Landsbanki, the Icelandic central bank has [...]

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I have quite an interest in investing in the stock market.  However I’ve noticed a huge uprising in day trading lately, with more and more books appearing on the subject, and many websites offering supposed “tips”, for a fee, of course.
Now I believe 100% in the value investment strategy that Warren Buffett helped develop alongside [...]

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