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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It seems economists underestimated the pain the US economy is currently in.  They projected job losses in August of around 75000, but as it turns out the number is closer to 85000.  This brings the unemployment rate in the US to 6.1%, its highest level in 5 years.
Now it is very easy to get caught [...]

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