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05 Dec 2011 19:58

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World: S&P could downgrade Euro countries’ credit ratings, because they’re no fun

  • 15 number of European countries S&P put on “creditwatch negative,” meaning that there’s a 50/50 chance of an upcoming downgrade; all use the Euro as currency
  • two number of countries that didn’t get the Euro which didn’t receive the downgrade — Cyprus (which already is “creditwatch negative”) and Greece (which is Greece) source
  • » A serious dent in the stock market’s mood: Earlier in the day, things were looking up — France and Germany, the two responsible parents of the region, pushed a new treaty to convince the rest of the region to shape up, and Italy’s Mario Monti made a good impression on investors by introducing a sweeping austerity plan in the country over the weekend — but the S&P decision sucked the life out of the room. It’s not the first time S&P has played the heavy, either.

01 Nov 2011 10:25

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World: Stocks hate democracy: Greek PM puts aid package up for referendum

  • cause In a surprising move that threw off the entire world market, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said that he would put the country’s aid package up to a public referendum.
  • reaction Stocks worldwide reacted to the news poorly, including the U.S., which fell by more than two percent. The markets were already volatile; the danger of Greek default made things even worse. source

16 Aug 2011 16:14

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World: France and Germany are doing their best to help the economy

  • Germany and France feel absolutely determined to strengthen the Euro as our common currency and further develop it.
  • Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor • Talking about Germany and France’s new plan of joint taxation. They’re drawing up plans to have a common corporate tax rate beginning in 2013. Both countries are having difficult economic issues, in fact Germany’s GDP only grew 0.1% from March to June, which means it’s basically at a standstill. Germany and France are hoping that joint taxation would strengthen confidence in the Euro, which would be great for both their economies.  source

27 May 2010 11:05

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Biz: China doesn’t do anything, and all of a sudden, stocks are happy

  • What went down: The Financial Times reported that China was thinking about ditching their European debt, which would be a huge blow for Europe’s economy. However, China denied these rumors, and reassured investors. Essentially, they stayed the course and singlehandedly turned stocks around. Not bad for doing nothing.
  • 1.7% the increase in the Dow Jones Industrial this morning
  • 2% the leap in
    the broader S&P 500
    after the news
  • 2.3% the leap in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 500 on the news source

22 Feb 2009 10:01

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Offbeat: It’s like a symbol of our economy being flushed down the toilet

  • 10,000 was literally flushed down the toilet source