plausibel: 2009

How much is a TRILLION dollars?

Have a look at this video, trying to explain how much a trillion dollars are. The sum has been in the media for some time now, as experts debate whether there should be spent more or less than that on bailing out marode banks. Interesting question, but not today. Let's start with the basics: how much is a trillion dollars?

(note: I was most surprised at how much the US have spent on war since 9/11)flo.

Jun

great graphical illustration

have a look at this, nicely done by the NYTimes.

flo.

Mar

the big picture Q&A

Following the last post, a couple of questions came up:

How could it be that bad quality mortgages in the US could have such an effect on the global economy? Is it because we are so tightly connected to the US economy or is it because something similar happened everywhere?

I would say it's a mixture of both. As is explained in the video, bad quality mortgages were repacked and - above all - revalued, and sold all over the place.

Feb

the big picture

Hi guys.

this week we have some "light entertainment". I found this little film about how all the strings (could) get together to fabricate what we call "the credit crunch". Needless to say that in a 10 minute animation one can hardly explain anything in great detail. Nevertheless I have found it quite interesting and very entertaining.

Feb

LFL 4: Why give money to Carmakers?

An interested reader asks:

And what about the government? Does it make sense to pump billions of dollars into the auto industry - as is happening in the US at the moment? In the end this is money that is taken away from taxpayers, because sooner or later they will have to pay it back - regardless if they want a car or not! Is this economically efficient? And why are there no calls for governemnt help from Asian carmakers, do they solve their problems differently? [my translation]

Excellent que

Feb

LfL 3: Banks

I hope you are doing fine. The snow is gone and London is as grey/green as ever - everything back to normal.

As normal as it can get those days, that is. And apart from the weather, there are few things you would label "normal" around here. (it's raining, obviously.) Just consider the Bank of England (BoE), whose monetary policy committee last week in a historic motion slashed the interbank lending rate - what we commonly call "the interest rate" - to 1%. Unheard of.

Feb

LFL 2

this week has seen some spectacular action in the UK. We started off with heavy snowfalls in sunday night, covering London and the southeast of the country by as much as 20 cm of snow. In a country where the transport infrastructure is prone to failure caused by gusts of fallen leafs, it is not hard to imagine the consequences: In fact, London was down by monday morning. For the first time in living memory the London Buses network was suspended from service.

Feb

Letters from London 1

I hope this message finds you well.

For all those of you who

want to brush up their English,wonder about what the heck is happening these days with the world, related to events headlined by "global financial crisis",have recurring spells of boredom during a typical day,I present the first email of a potentially to be continued series named "Letters from London (LfL)", where I will try to provide the reader with digested and selected information (i.e.