SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- The global financial market is teetering from fears of a dreaded double-dip in U.S. economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4.31 percent and the Nasdaq 5.08 percent, the biggest fall since December 2008. European stock markets lost more than 3 percent.
| Wait a minute, Obama said it was the Japanese Quake, the European Markets, and...(drum roll) ta da Bush's fault. |
In South Korea, the KOSPI index plunged 154 points over the last three days. Some 86 trillion won (US$80.6 billion) went up in smoke. The financial market is in a state of panic.
| So at the end of the day all the "won" gains of the recovery went up in smoke in S. Korea as well as the U.S. |
Despite the last-minute deal in Washington that averted default, pessimism runs amok about the U.S. economy. A major slowdown seems inevitable under the deal that only grants a higher government debt ceiling with spending cuts. It deepens the fears caused by the news that U.S. economic growth stopped at a below-expected 1.3 percent in the second quarter and that the manufacturing index in July was the lowest in two years. Massive money circulation from two rounds of quantitative easing apparently didn't bring results.
Pessimism runs amok in the U.S. economy? Nah. Baghdad Bob Carney, BO's press mouthpiece secretary, says the recovery is on track, the economy is doing well, jobs are being created, and Prez Obama had a great birthday bash in the WH--there celebs and hip hop artists. No worry, the Prez and First Lady paid for it all. It was a grand time. Now it is time to continue to do the hard work of re-election and tap the Hollywood crowd and Marxists, Leninists, Communists, left-wing liberals, statists, Progressives for $1 billion. |
More frightening is the fact that the U.S. doesn't really have many policy options to calm rattled nerves. Financial troubles are spreading throughout Europe, and should China decide to contract its economy to control inflation, the world economy will seriously suffer.
| The economy is out of gas (and oil to run)? Hmmmmnnnn. What to do, what to do? Running out of taxpayers to tax? China contract its economy? China is stuck in the same swamp as the U.S. |
How the U.S. economy fares is not an issue just for the U.S. A double-dip there will throw the world economy back into crisis, which is why some say Washington will eke out a recovery plan. There is already speculation that another, third round of quantitative easing is on its way.
| Q3, ah yes the "printing more money solution again"? What's the price of that? Hyperinflation? More higher prices. More individual wealth down the drain. |
The South Korean government doesn't believe that the U.S. will fall into a double dip. But it must stop unsubstantiated fears from shaking up the country's economy and make full efforts to pacify the rampant sense of fear. Certainly, recovery plans by Washington may have limited results and chances are high that market fears will come and go repeatedly. The government needs to monitor all movements in financial and foreign exchange markets to ward off any major shock.
| Let's see my 401k became a 201k back in 2008. And now my 201k is a 160k. Oh, I feel much better. Good my unsubstantiated fears are eased. Honey, where's that Tea Party site that John Fn Kerry wasn't talking about? |
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