Tech & Biz

Is there a recession coming?

by nk | August 27, 2007 at 11:36 am

955 views | 20 Recommendations | 2 comments

Recent tax data shows widening gap between rich and poor in
US

About 70 percent of the population earned below the mean in 2005—a sign of a highly polarized society. A large section of American taxpayers in 2005 likely found themselves either directly in poverty, or one paycheck or medical bill away from poverty.

In the same country in 2005, the number of taxpayers drawing in $10 million or more stood at 13,776, and this handful of taxpayers pulled in a combined $376 billion in income.

Fed bends rules to help two big banks

In a clear sign that the credit crunch is still affecting the nation's largest financial institutions, the Federal Reserve agreed this week to bend key banking regulations to help out Citigroup and Bank of America, according to documents posted Friday on the Fed's web site.

Mystery trader bets market will crash by a third

A mystery trader risks losing around $1 billion dollars after placing 245,000 put options on the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50 index [...] The trader stands to make around $2 billion from their investment should an event trigger market crash before the third week in September.

US recession risk highest since 9/11: ex-Treasury secretary

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said Sunday it was too early to declare the financial markets crisis over and said chances had risen sharply of an economic downturn in the United States.

Despite interventions by the US Federal Reserve last week which appeared to reverse heavy selling pressure over the collapsing US housing debt market, Summers said the risk of recession was its highest since the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks

And remember, China has $1.33 trillion of foreign reserves, of which over $900bn is in a mix of US bonds and they won't hesitate to use that as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.