| Subprime & Contagion |
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'Death in Kovalam' by John Francis Kinsella
The
story is set in an Indian beach resort, popular
amongst British tourists, over the Christmas
vacation period. Tom Barton, a City mortgage broker, arrives
in Kovalam after abandoning his business in
the wake of the subprime crisis. In his luxury hotel he meets Emma, the wife
of Stephen Parkly, the CEO of a London bank,
West Mercian Finance. Stephen Parkly falls gravely ill with a
mysterious infection and is hospitalized in
a local clinic.
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His situation rapidly
declines and he is put into intensive care. At
the very same time his bank is caught in a
Northern Rock style run. Dr. Ryan
Kavanagh, a specialist in internal medicine, on
holiday with his mother and sister Sarah,
discovers an attempted cover-up by the Indian
authorities. The disease is diagnosed as cholera, panic sets
in when tourists start to fall ill with the
deadly infection, just as the tourist season is
getting into full swing. Thousands of British
tourists enjoying the sun on the beaches are
unaware of the pending epidemic. Many of the
same tourists, ignorant of the crisis facing
West Mercian Finance, are about to see their
life savings wiped out in the collapse. For all
details please contact:
sumpinein@gmail.com
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| Inflation fears |
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Inflation is back with the rising cost of fuel
and food and services, visible to any driver or
shopper in spite of what we are told by our
governments. It is the inevitable result of a
decade of easy money and rising commodity prices
as investors rush to put their money into
something more tangible such as oil, wheat,
sugar and of course gold. At the same time wage
demands, which have not risen at the same rate,
will increase pressure on businesses. |
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Our only adds are
for charitable organizations. So why not donate
a dollar or two directly to one of these
charities! |
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UK real estate companies in
trouble |
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Countrywide the UK's largest
real estate company is in difficulty with the
rapid slow down of the country's housing market.
Other companies such as Foxtons are also
affected by the growing crises as sales
fall increasing pressures for layoffs. |
| BOOKS |
| The Legacy of
Solomon is the latest novel from John
Francis Kinsella. The story takes place in
Israel where a writer investigates the
archaeological story behind the work to
discover the site of the Jewish Temple, the
biblical legend, against
a background of conflicting evidence and the
conflict between Israel and Palestine. Visit
http://herod.tk |
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The Fed innovates in
the Financial crisis to avoid a
collapse of the dominoes as the
situation worsens and the
effects start to bite deep
defying all efforts to bring the
situation under control with the
dollar being routed on
international markets as oil and
gold reach new heights as the
world's financial institution
thrash around looking for
solution. But what kind of a
solution, more credit, which
created the problem in the first
place? The need to restore
confidence is urgent |
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Bear
Stearn's going for Bust! |
| Bank's
chairman plays bridge as the
bank burns! The shares of
Bear Stearns plunged 49 per cent
on Friday amid a deepening
liquidity crisis at the bank,
which is holding discussions
with JP Morgan is a desperate
attempt to stave off disaster.
The principal concern is Bear
Stearns is not the only one in
trouble. The whole financial
system is facing the gravest
threat for more than half a
century with multi-billion
dollar write downs and hedge
fund collapses. This coming week
Goldman
Sachs (below) is about to
announce significant subprime
related losses.
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The Independent New
York Times will be pleased to receive your
articles and comments. Please contact our
editorial desk at the following address
sumpinein@gmail.com
and we shall endeavour to answer you promptly. |
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In the mean time Lhasa
burns |
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Riots
and deaths in Lhasa, Tibet, threaten the success of
this year's Olympics in Beijing as the Chinese
government sends in the troops and the toll
mounts. How can Western nations look on while
Lhasa burns. Of course they can! China has now
reached a position of strength whereby
appeasement is vital, the same goes for Vladimr Putin's
Russia, which has now become to key supplier for
the West's gluttonous appetite for oil and gas. |
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See our on the spot report
for Tunisia |
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May 7 with news of events and developments |
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| Special Report India |
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The world business press speaks more and more of
the rising middle class in the emerging world
and more specifically in India with its huge
population of potential consumers. The question
for marketers is how to define the much talked
about middle class of India? It is not an easy
task in such a large and varied country, but the
Indian National Council of Applied Economic
Research, defined middle class as approximately
sixty million Indians earning between US $4,000
and $20,000 a year, which in terms of purchasing
power was about five times greater than in the
USA. Which, in simple terms, meant that few of
these could afford to buy a car or indulge in
overseas travel, not to mind thinking of a
kidney transplant, without hugely indebting
them-selves. Certain studies defined the twenty
percent who own a two or four wheeled vehicle, a
colour TV or a telephone as qualifying for
middle class membership, even though most were
in the income bracket of $1,500 to $3,000 a
year. The real question is how can India, with
its population of over 1.15 billion people, not
far behind China’s 1.3 billion, survive? The UN
expect the population to rise to around 1.6
billion by 2050.
A mere one percent of the population can afford
the status symbols common in the West. Beyond
the hype around India’s economic rise, three
hundred million Indians lived on less than $1 a
day with immense social and economic problems
affecting the vast majority of the country’s citizens.
Only 3% percent of the country's population have
medical assurance.
In the struggle for planetary resources India is
badly positioned for the future with its vast
needs. Article by Sumpinein |
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