Friday, July 30th, 2010

Daily Verdict: October 16th, 2008

Markets plunge on global fears of recession
The markets closed yesterday after big losses due to fears of a global recession. Recession fears were sparked by a reports of higher job losses with more expected, worse than expected retail sales and the highest US federal budget deficit ever! North American stocks rallied today to finish in the positive today but European stocks plunged for a second straight day. It is clear that this crisis will linger on.

Obama warns against overconfidence
Barack Obama, at a recent fundraiser, has warned his supporters not to be “cocky” with 19 days until the election. He reminded his supporters of New Hampshire, the democratic primary, where he led in most polls but lost to Senator Clinton. Ireland’s biggest bookmaker though, Paddy Power, has already declared Obama the winner and will pay out early on bets that Obama would become the next president! Let’s hope they will not be wrong and the Bradley effect will not play a role come election day.

Joe the plumber? No. Sam the Plumber? No. Just Sam
It turns out, according to Reuters, that the superstar of last night’s debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, Joe the plumber, is not a licensed plumber and his first name is actually Sam. Well then, much ado about nothing. There goes McCain’s new campaign headliner for the next week. I guess Ayers is really all they have left on Obama. Wait, why not bring back Jeremiah Wright!? That will change people’s minds!

EU backing out of bold climate-change targets?
Time reports that after a two day meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, 8 European nations, led by Poland, have argued that abiding by the emission targets laid out, to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, are simply too expensive to comply with. Italian PM, Silvio Berlusconi, also pointed to the recent financial crisis as another reason to slow down on the closing of old polluting industrial plants. Sarkozy, the recent star of the EU and French president, did state that the goals and timetable of targets will be upheld.

Google’s profit rises 26%
Time has also called Google “recession-proof”, after recent reports of increased sales and an increase in profits of 26%. Google reported revenue of over 5.5 billion dollars for the quarter ended on Sept. 30th, up 31% from a year ago. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is recognized as an Economic advisor for Barack Obama and so is Warren Buffet, another man still making money through this crisis. Remind me again why America should not elect Obama.

Oil hovers around $70/barrel
Crude oil reached $69.85 after a recent report that the US has a larger than expected growth of crude oil and gasoline supplies. This is the lowest level in over a year and a stark contrast to past predictions that oil would even reach $200/barrel before year’s end. However, why have gas prices not halved in price as well since this summer when oil hit an all-time high?

Arctic temperatures hit record high
Miami Herald reports that Arctic temperatures last fall hit a record high, more than 5 degrees Centigrade above normal and remain almost as high this year according to a group of international scientists. So global warming is just a myth right?

World Cup Qualifier results
Wayne Rooney once again had a brace as England won 3-1 against lowly Belarus. Steven Gerrard finally scored again for his country as England struggled through the first half coming into half-time with a 1-1 draw. Portugal was shocked by Albania at home not managing to score a goal in a 0-0 tie. Turkey was also held to a 0-0 draw by lowly Estonia, making their campaign much harder now. Brazil was also held at home by a surprisingly solid Colombian side. The surprise of the night had to come from the Chile – Argentina game where the star-studded Argentina was beaten 1-0. Russia, Croatia, Lithuania, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic all won their matches.