Global economy
With reported 40% losses at both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – the two Government mortgage guarantors – as a result of repossessions and the drama in the housing market, the outlook for the UK is serious.
Not just because of direct impacts of credit tightening and debt default, but because it signals that the US is undoubtedly going to turn inward and trade-protectionist over the coming months to try to maintain it's economy. That such a policy is economically inept, and causes short term small gain, for long-term large pain, is neither here nor there with an election looming.
The recent repudiation of the Airbus $18bn tanker contract and its likely award to Boeing (despite fraud, insider dealing and other nefarious activities) signals the depth of the recession facing the US. With the support of both Presidential candidates for this course of action, it bodes ill for international trade and the for the world economy.
The last time the US engaged in large scale protectionism was in the late 1920's, and this caused (or at very least significantly exacerbated) the crash of 1929.
3 comments:
Looks like even AMEC is feeling the pinch...or is it a David & Goliath moment?
"Amec, meanwhile, has put its wind-farm unit up for sale, heralding an ignominious end to the engineering group’s eight-year effort to build itself into one of the industry’s top players...the decision to exit comes just three months after the Scottish Executive rejected Amec’s flagship project, a 680Mw wind farm on the Isle of Lewis."
Dumb and Dumber moment, more like.
The word 'ignominious' is well chosen, given that AMEC simply jumped onto what they thought would be a cashing-in cert, i.e. the west side windfarm and are now jumping off faster than a cat off a hotplate.
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