Iceland hits rock bottom

Imagine, standing in a queue to withdraw money,
finding out that you can only withdraw 400 euro. That is what happened to thousands of people in the UK and in the Netherlands, who had a deposit account at the Icelandic banc Icesave.
Icesave, is a part of Landsbanki, on of the 3 bancs that faced serious problems caused by the credit crunch in Iceland. Iceland itself has faced enormious difficulties to save their national economy, the Icelandic government remains positive, and insures that the accounts at Icesave are safe; but for the Icelandic people the future, with high inflation, unemployment,… is looking less bright.

Sanne Vandenborre
http://eng.utanrikisraduneyti.is/speeches-and-articles/nr/4500

Scammers attack your bank account

During the bank crisis online scammers are phishing for your personal bank information by asking you to update your bank account. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns for several phishing e-mails with links to look-alike sites. Althouhg this method is nothing new, the financial crisis gives the e-mails a more confidential appereance to the victims. The FTC recommends to report the mails by forwarding them to spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org.

Mathieu Trangez
http://www.atelier-us.com/e-business-and-it/article/phishers-feast-on-bank-crisis

Jean-Luc Dehaene must restore confidence

Because of a sharp drop in the share price, Dexia announced a new chairman for the Board of Directors. Paribas Pierre Mariani, manager of BNP, was put forward by France and he is going to be the new CEO. The function of Chairman of the Board of Directors will be filled by ex-Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, who was put forward by Yves Leterme because of his financial and political knowledge. Jean-Luc Dehaene en Mariani recreate big future opportunities for Dexia, by giving a strong signal of confidence for the market .

http://www.trends.be/nl/economie/bedrijven/4-222-49928/jean-luc-dehaene-wordt-nieuwe-voorzitter-dexia.html

Carmen Ringoot

Rescue the banking system

Governments in America and Europe do everything they can to rescue the banking system. The weaknesses of banks in America and Europe has now become very clear.
Therefore, to support the banks the government took actions, such as providing them with liquidities, removing the toxic assets from banks’ balance-sheets, buying and/or splitting them up.Although government intervention is necessary, the risk for shareholders to loose their money is very high.

Lien Van Den Bossche

(http://www.economist.com/)

Golden future?

Investors seek gold as a safe haven in these turbulent times. Gold has been highly-valued since prehistoric times and what’s more, the commotion on the stock markets made the gold price even shoot up. Gold offers safety in uncertain times, because it’s the perfect protection against changeable exchange rates, inflation and the weak dollar. The financial crisis may last for months, that’s why this precious metal could have a golden future.

Griet Van Der Vurst

Meltdown for Iceland?

Due to the international financial crisis, Iceland is at the edge of a national bankrupt. Last week the government saved the banks Glitnir and Landsbanki, the third and second largest bank of Iceland. The Icelandic government has also introduced a ‘trading-stop’ to several other banks and since the economy particularly depends on the banking sector, Iceland stands for some important en historical days that could influence the future of the country.

Ruben Van Damme

Bron: hln.be

Money drop out race

Presidential candidates have to pay a lot of money for their campaign.

In april, Clinton already had a debt of $10,3 million. Maybe that could be the reason why this feminine candidate left the presidential elections?

One thing is sure: Obama hold on, in contradiction to his ex-oppositional candidate he's far from being in the red.

Astrid Van Acker (group 7)

(link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/21/politics/main4029754.shtml)

The British plan

According to Gordon Brown, the global financial market has ceased to function. Official action became very urgent, because the banks couldn’t manage it on their own. In general, there are three related problems: the banks need capital due to big losses, but they can’t contract long-term loans, nor short-term loans, caused by the close money markets. The British plan wants to tackle the crisis on all fronts to get the market working again; they’ll inject £50 billion into the banks, they’ll lend to banks to clear the market for short-term liquidity and finally £250 billion will be used to take over bank debts. It’s not sure the plan will work, but it is already a great refief and this could only be a succes if other countries also act.

link: http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12381995

Thomas Theys

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT GOES INTO BANKING

American president George Bush has announced that the U.S government will take interests in the bank institutions. The american government wants to help the financial sector, by pumping in 250 billion dollar. With the 250 billion dollar the american autohorities will take interests in Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, State Street en Bank of New York Mellon Corp. The purchase of shares and interests in bank institutions would be short term measures to stabalise the markets.

Alexander Rombaut

Bron: De Tijd

To run a bank

One element in the current worldwide financial crisis is the occurance of
runs on the banks: people want to get their money in cash, and fast, and this brings every bank to the edge of bankrupcy and compromises the remaining banks!
No bank can cope with these withdrawals as banks don't back every money unit in accounts with the same amoung of cash:
the last months several national governments have had to guarantee bank funds by instructing central banks to turn on the printing press, causing
even more loss of purchasing power, while socialist media were proclaiming the downfall of Capitalism.
The problem however, lies not in Capitalism, but in the scandalous behaviour of banks, and the solution would be for banks to return to the system
of full reserve banking, so that a bank run doesn't happen again.
A practice which has proved itself as harmful as banking without the responsibility of the bank for the money it created should not complain
if support by the government is withdrawn.

Patrick Rosenhøj

http://www.mises.org/books/desoto.pdf

Icelanders : nude and hungry homo sapiens?

Iceland and its people are under massive pressure to find a healing approach for the effects that the crisis is bringing along. Because of the bank and money unit crash, Icelandic stores need to break into their stock to keep the racks full. Importers now demand payment in advance out of precaution, wich Icelandic entrepreneurs can't afford due to the low value of the Icelandic Krona. Clothes and basic products will become rare in Iceland within two weeks if the crisis keeps up at this pace and nothing is done about it!

Lore Pieters


Source : http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/2401/Crisis-op-de-beurs/article/detail/450648/2008/10/14/IJslanders-gedoemd-tot-hamsteren-door-bijna-lege-rekken.dhtml

Financial education at school?

The Scottish government wants schools to add financial education to their curriculum. The government is convinced it is necessary to inform every single person about the basic financial needs. The long queues outside banks show this need for information about things such as mortgages, loans and pensions. This way, the government wants to stop the global turmoil.

Mart Vancoppenolle

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article4837702.ece

Nationalization of America’s banking system

The American government is doing everything what it takes to ensure the viability of America's banking system. The government created a plan to end the credit crisis. Just as in Europe it agreed to combine a partial nationalization with a package of loan guarantees. The reason is simple: by taking over the free market for a short period, the American government ensures its people a good-working long-term economic future.

Wouter Staelens

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4942192.ece

Is the Stock Exchange rallying?

On Monday markets all over the world recorded their biggest gain in history. European and US stock markets yesterday welcomed the rescue plan of the European governments and the announcement of President Bush to buy significant amounts of shares in large US banks positively. The stock markets soared by tens of per cents as a reaction to the pledge to set aside hundreds of billions of dollars to stabilise the financial markets. Many believe this global governmental boost heralds a time of revival.

http://www.standaard.be/

Home banking?

The whole financial crisis makes people lose their confidence in bank savings; it’s not just grandpa any more with money underneath the bed…

More and more people decide to keep their money ‘save at home’, that’s why the demand for cash money has increased enormously in the Euro-zone last week. The danger exists that burglars get aware of the distrust in our bank system and the police warns for an equal increase of the number of home robberies. But considering the stabilizing share market and the intervention of the government; aren’t we all reacting too excessively?

Pieter-Jan Thijs

www.deredactie.be

Who’s to blame?

If you haven’t been living with some nomadic tribe for the last few weeks – and even then- you will have heard about the Financial crisis and how it was caused by corporate greed.
But not everybody thinks the companies are to blame, among the defenders of the free market we find authorities like the Nobel-prize winning Joseph Stiglitz. This economist says that low interest rates and Bush’s tax cuts paved the way for the risks taken by enterprises and the following U.S. recession. Not al companies have been behaving like angels but most of them have acted correctly and that’s apparently more then we can say for our governments.

Jonathan Schotte

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2719096320080427

Brown to lead the financial challenges

Gordon Brown’s rescue plan is becoming the example of how to react on the financial crisis that is expanding these days. The first major aspect of the British Prime Minster’s plan is to pump an enormous amount of liquidities into the system. Another element is to give securities to the banks to stimulate them to exchange money to each other again. Many of Brown’s ideas will be found in other European leaders’ rescue plans that will be released soon.

Andreas Standaert

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3190687/Gordon-Browns-plan-is-model-for-EU-response-to-financial-crisis.html

The Flemish, brilliant savers.

Study shows that retired people often save nothing, someone who lives alone doesn’t have the intention to save a lot and families are the best savers. In fact, 80 percent of the Flemish families invest or save money. A savings account is still very popular and investment banking becomes also popular. The Flemish families invest next to real estate most in investment funds such as bevek.

Source: http://www.nieuwsblad.be/GT/Index.aspx?genericId=293&articleId=OB1HF490

Wouter Van Damme

Rising American shares

Americans stocks surged significantly after the new US plan to stabilize their financial system. Since Bush decided to invest $250 billion in the US banks, the Dow Jones average has known an 11 percent gain, which is now a new record in the country. However the record of biggest gain in one day is reserved for the Japan’s Nikkei, who knew a rise of 14 percent after hearing about the new US plan. This rise can also be seen in the rest of the world’s shares like on FTSE 100.

Valerie Pleuvret

Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article4939705.ece

No crisis for the card companies

The card companies are taking advantage of the financial crisis to raise the interests of the credit cards, used by the customers. The customers need to pay a much higher interest when they use their credit card for withdrawing cash or to pay their mortgages, than a couple of years ago. The card companies are making profit of 161million pounds, thanks to the huge interests that they charge the people. That is why Uswitch accuses the card companies and says that the high interest rates should be investigated, in order to protect the customers and their money.

Troch Mikio
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/borrowing/article4941884.ece

The art of investing in art

Art as an investment avenue is nowadays considered to be a lucrative and interesting alternative. Uncertain stock markets, corporate scandals and interest rates at their lowest point in decades are forcing investors to quest for alternative investment avenues such as art. However, one must keep in mind that art is high-risk investment -riskier than stocks- because prices of art fluctuate more widely than those of stocks. On the other hand, the advantage of investing in fine art is that it survives economic downturn, which might be useful in these dark financial times…

Jasper Soete