World Stock Markets Plunge as Global Crisis Deepens

THE GUARDIAN: Stock markets hit to their lowest level in 2012 as poor US jobless figures and weak manufacturing data from Europe sparked renewed fears of a global slowdown

World markets plunged to their lowest level this year as poor US jobless figures and weak manufacturing data from Europe sparked renewed fears of a global slowdown.

As traders sold off shares in favour of safer assets such as gold, the FTSE 100 in London fell 1.14% to close at 5260.19, its lowest level since 25 November last year. European markets also ended sharply lower, with Germany's Dax down nearly 3.5%, France's Cac down 2.2% and Spain's Ibex off by 0.4%. In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average had fallen more than 220 points - or 1.8% - by the time London closed. After overnight falls in Asia following signs of a slowdown in China, the MSCI world index hit its lowest level since December.

The day's economic data went from bad to worse, with the eurozone manufacturing sector suffering its worst month since June 2009 and its jobless rate hitting a record high of 11%. In the UK the manufacturing sector sufferered [sic] its second-biggest fall in 20 years, according to the latest purchasing managers' index. Read on and comment » | Nick Fletcher | Friday, June 01, 2012

Wirtschaftskrise: 50 Millionen Amerikaner fehlt das Geld für Nahrung
ZEIT ONLINE: Die globale Krise trifft viele Menschen in der stärksten Wirtschaftsnation der Welt hart: Rund 50 Millionen Amerikaner konnten sich 2007 nicht ausreichend Essen leisten.

Suppenküche in Charlotte, North Carolina: 2008 hatten Millionen Amerikaner nicht genügend Geld, um sich ausreichend zu ernähren. Bild: Zeit Online
Im Jahr 2007 waren noch elf Prozent der Haushalte nicht angemessen mit Lebensmitteln versorgt. Ein Jahr später, im Krisenjahr 2008, sind es 14, 6 Prozent gewesen. Das geht aus einer Studie des US-Landwirtschaftsministeriums hervor. Demnach hatten rund 50 Millionen Amerikaner zeitweise nicht genügend Geld, um sich ausreichend Essen zu kaufen. >>> Zeit Online, dpa | Dienstag, 17. November 2009

Swiss Slide into Deflation Signals the Next Chapter of This Global Crisis
THE TELEGRAPH: Watch Switzerland closely. It is tipping into deflation, the first Western country to succumb to Japan's disease.

Swiss consumer prices fell 0.4pc in March (year-on-year). Swiss CPI will be minus 1pc at least by July, nearing the level where spending psychology changes. By the time you have a self-feeding spiral, it is too late.

"This is something that we must prevent at all costs. The current situation is extraordinarily serious," said Philipp Hildebrand, a governor of the Swiss National Bank.

The SNB is not easily spooked. It is the world's benchmark bank, the keeper of the monetary flame. Yet even the SNB's hard men have thrown away the rule book, taking emergency action to force down the exchange rate of the Swiss franc.

Here lies the danger. If other countries try to export deflation by this means, we will face a second phase of the global crisis. Taiwan is already devaluing. Korea, Singapore, and Sweden all seem tempted to follow. Japan is chomping at the bit.

"We don't fully realise in the West what a catastrophic collapse Japan has suffered," says Albert Edwards, global strategist at Société Générale. "The West has dumped a large part of its economic downturn onto Japan by devaluing against the yen."

This is about to go into reverse as Tokyo hits the ping-pong ball back across the net. "As the unfolding collapse in the yen gathers pace, the West will see its green shoots incinerated to dust," he said. >>> By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Sunday, April 5, 2009