George W Bush finishes his statement about the economic bailout bill and financial crisis on Sept 30 2008 at the White House.
George W Bush finishes his statement about the economic bailout bill and financial crisis on Sept 30 2008 at the White House.

Meltdown threatens global economy



As US officials regroup for another attempt at a financial rescue package, concerns are growing that Wall Street's meltdown is quickly spreading from the financial system to the real economy, and from America to the rest of the world. Heartened by signs that US legislators are still working on a compromise bailout, global equity markets generally stabilised today. But credit markets, the borrowing and lending that is the lifeblood of economic activity, continued to fear for the worst. Banks went another day lending virtually nothing to one other, extending the longest period that they have outright shunned each other since the 1930s. Instead, they and investors piled into perceived safe havens such as gold, US Treasury bonds and deposits with central banks. At the European Central Bank, lenders deposited a record ?44 billion (Dh236bn) for safe keeping overnight while scrambling to borrow the largest sum of money from the bank's emergency lending facility since 2002. Central banks dumped huge sums of cash into the banking system, led by the US Federal Reserve's US$650bn (Dh2.4 trillion) outpouring on Monday. They hope to keep financial institutions afloat until they gain the confidence to resume lending to each other, and then on to businesses and consumers to keep them investing and spending. Yet problems continued to mount. In the US, Wachovia, a troubled lender, was purchased on its deathbed by Citigroup. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley saw their shares fall sharply again on Monday, despite dramatic efforts in recent days to raise capital and forge alliances to restore confidence in their businesses. The British mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley was partly nationalised. Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg partly nationalised the financial group Fortis, and the German government and the country's banks joined forces to extend a last-minute credit line to the property lender Hypo Real Estate. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy called a pre-dawn meeting with key advisers, met French bankers and promised new measures by the end of the week. "Banks are in trouble in Germany, Belgium and Great Britain," an aide told Agence France-Presse news service. "We feel a bit surrounded." Reverberations from Wall Street spread as far as Iceland, where Glitner, the country's third-largest bank, was nationalised on Monday. Those developments dovetailed with concerns that financial problems could be even more difficult to contain beyond US borders. "The US can fix this," said Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, the chairman of Ithmaar Bank, in an interview at the World Economic Forum's New Champions conference in Tianjin, China. "They have one market, one government, one package. The worry is what happens when it shifts across the Atlantic. Then we'll have different countries, different jurisdictions. How will you have one package?" Markets in the Gulf were closed yesterday for the Eid al Fitr holiday. In Washington, President George W Bush spoke on national television in a short but blunt address, a day after Monday's stock plunge wiped $1.2tn in value from US stocks. "We need sensible legislation that gets our economy going again," he said. "We're in an urgent situation... If we continue on this path, the economic damage will be painful and lasting." His words, along with congressional willingness to revisit the bailout package, helped stave off further steep losses in stock markets. But signs continue to emerge that the turmoil in credit markets, which has been going on for more than a year, is taking a toll on the global economy. International air freight traffic shrank in August, according to figures released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Air cargo shipments fell 2.7 per cent while passenger traffic rose by a meagre 1.3 per cent. The cargo shipments, especially, reflect the health of world trade and they have declined for three successive months. "This shows the impact of the financial crisis is broad geographically, and will worsen before it gets better," said Giovanni Bisignani, the director general of the association. Some observers have expressed concern that corporations could begin to fail as they are forced to close their books for the third quarter tomorrow. Global markets could also be tested by the large-scale redemptions requests many hedge funds are expecting. The industry has had one of its worst-ever runs and many operators are expecting some investors who have been stung to pull out their money. That may cause the funds to sell more assets to raise cash. And back in the US, a struggling housing market, linked to many of the financial instruments at the heart of problems in the financial system, continued to erode. A closely watched index showed home prices fell by the sharpest annual rate ever in July. The Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller 20-city housing index fell a record 16.3 per cent compared to the year-earlier period. That was the biggest decline since the 20-city index came into use in 2000. The 10-city index fell 17.5 per cent, the biggest decline in its 21-year history. bspindle@thenational.com

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

How to avoid crypto fraud
  • Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
  • Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
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The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Federer's 11 Wimbledon finals

2003 Beat Mark Philippoussis

2004 Beat Andy Roddick

2005 Beat Andy Roddick

2006 Beat Rafael Nadal

2007 Beat Rafael Nadal

2008 Lost to Rafael Nadal

2009 Beat Andy Roddick

2012 Beat Andy Murray

2014 Lost to Novak Djokovic

2015 Lost to Novak Djokovic

2017 Beat Marin Cilic

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
About Okadoc

Date started: Okadoc, 2018

Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Healthcare

Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth

Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February

Investors: Undisclosed

The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre turbo

Power: 181hp

Torque: 230Nm

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

Starting price: Dh79,000

On sale: Now

'Gold'

Director:Anthony Hayes

Stars:Zaf Efron, Anthony Hayes

Rating:3/5

match info

Chelsea 2
Willian (13'), Ross Barkley (64')

Liverpool 0

2017%20RESULTS%3A%20FRENCH%20VOTERS%20IN%20UK
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Power: 510hp at 9,000rpm
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Price: From Dh801,800
UAE squad to face Ireland

Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri (vice-captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmad, Zawar Farid, CP Rizwaan, Aryan Lakra, Karthik Meiyappan, Alishan Sharafu, Basil Hameed, Kashif Daud, Adithya Shetty, Vriitya Aravind