Finance News

(Originally published in The Sunday Leader, 28 August 2011) In mid 2008 the world plunged into an economic recession with devastating consequences throughout the world. The crisis apparently started in the USA. It was a man-made crisis and it came apparently without a prior warning. Surprisingly, even the economists world over, who are engaged in the day to day affairs …

Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi, the most powerful Arab woman in the world according to Arab Business and Forbes magazines, who is also the Minister of Foreign Trade of United Arab Emirates, arrived in Sri Lanka today, on a three-day official visit amidst renewed bilateral trade efforts between Sri Lanka and the UAE. She is visiting Sri …

  Nouriel Roubini was  was in fine form yesterday, scaring the bejeezus out of his followers on Twitter by saying that several huge financial institutions could collapse in the blink of an eye like MF Global. These houses of cards, Roubini tweeted, include: Goldman Sachs Morgan Stanley Jefferies Barclays The problem, as Roubini has consistently warned, is the banks' dependence on short-term financing to …

There's no way to overstate the calamity that's unfolding across the Atlantic. The eurozone is imploding. The smart money has already fled EU banks for safe quarters in the US while political leaders frantically look for a way to prevent a seemingly-unavoidable meltdown. Here's an excerpt from a post at The Streetlight blog that explains what's going on: "…ECB data seems …

  Bank funding costs are rising, liquidity is being choked off, and interbank lending has started to stall. A full-blown crisis can still be averted, but leaders will have to knuckle down and resolve the political issues fast. Otherwise the 17-member monetary union will fracture and the euro will be kaput. Here’s a clip from the Wall Street Journal: Commercial banks …

A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets. Insurance on the debt of several major European banks has now hit historic levels, higher even than those recorded during financial crisis caused by the US financial group's implosion nearly three years ago. Credit default …