CHRONOLOGY

PRELUDE

1998 March “The East Asian crisis is a milestone on the inexorable trend towards market capitalism.” Alan Greenspan. September 7th September “greed has replaced bankerly caution under the misguided assumption that some players were too big to fail.” (IHT) 26th September “LTCM shows that it is not only in developing countries that transparency oversight and prudential controls have been found wanting. A growing proportion of global capital is leveraged, so the G7 needs to make progress on two fronts next week. It must start to create a global financial architecture that can deal with problems of transparency, controls, risk management and regulation much closer to home.

October October 8th “there may be shocks to the system in part because financial innovations like securitization and swaps have lead to a growth in lending that isn’t measured by conventional statistics.” (WSJ)

2005 April 14th CREDIT CARD EXCESS MEANS ECONOMIC TURBULENCE, WARNS IMF (iht) December 16th “As with leveraged loans with structured products engineered from instruments that are already leveraged. There are signs that the quality of the underlying asset pool may be deteriorating” (FT)

FT 2006 April

  • March against London Olympic games bid from Stratford to Hackney marshes
  • Report links rapid Amazon forst estruction to Brazilian soya for Western fast food outlets.
  • Trial of the contractor involved in deaths by drowning of ‘illegal’ Chinese cockle-picker in the UK. Its Immigration Service and Department of Works and Pension accused of being ‘agents provocateurs, of making a situation in which such dangerous cockling was acceptable. Accusation made by Lord Carlile

April 11th Walkers Crispis advert being investigated following complaints over their claims of reduced salt and sugar levels. May Ben Bernanke new Fed Rserve? boss urges “banks to clearly evaluate the risks that they are taking.” 

 6th

Stephen Roach the last remaining ‘bear’ of the 5 year ‘bull’ market says he is “feeling better about the prognosis for the world economy for the first time in ages.” Gold is $700 an ounce. Copper and Platinum at record prices. Oil 7075 a barrel and the Fed Interest Rate is 5% Jim Rogers, ex-Soros wiseguy investor says the amount of arable land being farmed and the price of wheat are at al an all time low. He estimates that this is similar for sugar and other agricultural commodities. 

 23rd

MARKETS IN FULL SCALE RETREAT

July 29th OIL PRICE AND DOLLAR PLUNGE AS AMERICAN GROWTH STALLS

September 13th CAB says 770,000 people had missed at least one or more mortgage payments in the the last year in UK IMF says UK’s Housing market is vulnerable to further increases in Interest Rate 23rd The Property Investment Show opens at Excel Centre canning Town. Brazil and Bulgaria are favourites for Brits cashing in on house price profits 27th Average Brit has unsecured debt of over 3 grand, Twice European average.

3rd November Debt Free Direct becomes the second ‘debt management’ company in q week to announce big increase in turnover and profit following Accumen 6th November Abbey National loosens mortgage requirements.

2007 January 24th Halifax (UK Bank) estimates UK housing stock to be worth £3.8 trillion. February USA sets up and African military command havinfg set up bases and access in Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Gabon and Namibia

March US Treasury Secretary Paulson says the financial damage from sub-prime is ‘largely contained’. 23rd Marks and Spencer supplier Dewhirst that transferred production from UK to Morocco is in dispute there over pay, conditions and discrimination against trade unionists. April Northern Rock Share price starts its dive May Ben Bernanke new Fed Rserve? boss urges “banks to clearly evaluate the risks that they are taking.” Human Rights Watch indicts Wal-Mart for routinely flouting workers’ rights June 28th Tescos AGM confronted by South African fruit-pickers earning as little as 38p an hour July. 12th DOLLAR FALLS AGAIN AMID GROWING US FEARS 16th Asda and Primark accused of textile workers being forced to work 80 hours a week for as little as 4p per hour in Bangladesh 18th DOW JONES BREAKS THROUGH 14,000 BARRIER On account of strong earnings from corporate America and optimism that the meltdown in the housing market. 

 25th

-Moody’s ratings agency says the size of losses from the turmoil in US housing market remains unknown. -Treasury Secretary Paulson (ex-Goldman Sachs) complains that the corporate tax code is hurting US competitiveness.

AUGUST Goldman Sachs ‘Global Equity Opportunity Fund; announces $1.7bn loss On financial derivatives. “No one knows who owns this stuff.” August 16th Federal Reserve announces cut in its discount rate. Treasury Sec Paulson says “I don’t believe that more regulation of private pools of capital or more laws in general, would insulate investors from losses or would be effective.”

September Alastair Darling letter to ECOFIN warns against ‘regulatory overkill.’

November Bosses of Merrill lynch and Citigroup ousted.

December Bank of England, Fed, ECB, Swiss and Canadian central banks announce a $100bn ‘injection’, ie loans for longer periods at lower rates.

Citibank sells stake to Abu Dhabi SWF( Sovereign Wealth Fund) Merrill Lynch sells stake to Singapore SWF

2008 January Merrill Lynch repays Sringfiled MA municipality after complaint that it sold CD Os? on the understanding they were safe assets, and after it fell from $13.9m to 1.2 23rd January Boston USA. Neighbours and supporters rally in front of Melanie Griffths-Evans house to block a foreclosure eviction by US Bank and Owen Financial February

  • Oil companies announce record profits. Shell, $27bn, a European record. Exxon Mobil? $40bn, the biggest by any company ever.
  • Estimate of $400bn global banking losses (USA Monetary Policy Forum)

25th February German HSH Nordbank plans to sue UBS claiming “Mis-selling, mismanagement and misrepresentation of risk.”

March March 25th Bear Sterns ‘rescued’ by JP Morgan after it raises its ‘firesale’ price and with US govt. backing. Hard on shareholders but not on bond-holders or counter-parties which, odds-on include Goldman Sachs

April USA Term Auction Facility increased by $50bn and Interest Rate reduced. 2nd April 

 TREASURY PRPOSAL GIVES WALL STREET WHART IT WANTS (iht)

Bank of England eases conditions of its banking support accepting more dodgy collateral than before. 27th April UK REPOSESSIONS SET TO SOAR AS COSTS SPIRAL

May Standard & Poor develops a global agribusiness composite index. Return in the year ending in April worked out at MORE THAN 40% 4th May Cairo food price protest followed by arrests May 6th US military planning for a Tigris Woods Golf and Country club inside baghdad’s Green Zone. Marriott Hotels involved. 12th May INVESTMENT BANKS TURN TO AFRICA IN EFFORT TO BOOST FLAGGING PROFITS (The Indie) 25th May International Energy Authority orders an inquiry as to whether the world will run out of oil soon. Oil price $135 a barrel 26th May AGRICULTURAL LAND PRICES OFFER FARMERS A RICH HARVEST (UK headline) 27 May UN FAO holds food summit. Price of rice doubled since January. Price of wheat doubled since May 2007. Soya beans and sugar also show dramatic price rises

June 2nd June UBS and Paramaz countersuing each other over credit default swaps. A FLUSH CITY BROADENS ITS PALETTE In Singapore huge sums being spent on classic French wines 3rd June Police break up protest by parents of children killed in Chinese earthquake. June 7th Oil price hits $139 June 10th Saudis call an OPEC meeting to stem “unjustified” oil price surge. 12th June - SEC proposes rules to prevent conflicts of interest at credit-ratings agencies. -Royal Bank of Scotland raises $23.5bn in rights issue 19th June Official report admits role of biofuel in food crisis. 20th June Arrests of several US bankers and advisers including two big noises from Bear Sterns? 27th June STOCKMARKETS PLUNGE AS TRADERS REACT TO FEARS OF FURTHER SUB-PRIME DAMAGE

July Mid-July US government insures Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac 30th July WTO talks collapse after India and China clash with USA over farm products.

September Estimate of $1.4 trillion banking losses (IMF) 17th September Federal Reserve to lend AIG $85bn in return for 80% of the company 8th September Freddie Mae and Freddy Mac to be temporarily nationalized without the word being used.

November 24th BAILOUT OF CITIGROUP, WHILE NECESSARY, WAS TOO LENIENT(iht) More capital plus a $306bn ‘bad bank’ guarantee.

November Estimate of $2.8 trillion global bank losses (Bank of England) November 23rd Fed announces $800bn in an effort to ‘unfreeze credit’. November 24th

December Gordon Brown announces that benefit claimants will face lie detector tests and lose benefits for a month if found guilty.

2009 25th January AUDITORS IN THE PALM OF THE BANKS (The Times online)

23rd March BOUNCERS RECRUITED TO CONTRAL CLASSES, SAYS TEACHER (UK) July Jim Rogers, ex-Soros wiseguy says “I’m convinced that farmland is going to be one of the best investments of our time.” Over the last year suc prices are up 16% in Brazil; 31% in Poland and 15% in the Mid-West

September New ethnic cleansing tactic in Galilee. Ecologists, industrialists and academics drafted in to a Jewish National initiative THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATURE IN ISRAEL

October 9th October Bulldozers knocking down ‘illegal’ houses in Madrid’s Canada Real area

22nd October 

 Republic of Congo (not DRC) to hand over half a million acres of neglected state farms to South African Farmers group.

November 13th November

  • INDIA’S GRADUATES ARE FLEEING LIFE ON THE FARM
  • Date entering being outsourced/subcontracted from Bangalore to smalltowns in its environs like Bagepalli, for cheaper rent and labour.