The Money Washing Machine

It is not unusual in the police and military officers that we find from them millionaires or even billionaires after their retirement from the service. They accumulate wealth from behind the scene and concealed sources while portraying a picture of honest and incorruptible officials. In their retirement, they maintain the power and financial gains to influence subordinate officials and a ready capital either for luxurious living or for the pursuit of elective and more lucrative position in the government. See more @
Pinoy Barking Hall

Rafa-era Reds finally win at the Bridge

by Ednathan Thadeu Andrada
nathanandrada.wordpress.com

Coming into this game, I already conditioned myself that it we would be lucky if Liverpool could at least snatch a point in their game against Chelsea. Odds are certainly against us especially that the it has been four years now since Rafael Benitez acrimoniously left then La Liga champions Valencia to manage England’s most decorated club, yet until Sunday he has yet to muster a win against their bitter rivals from London.

Can not blame me nor even many of Liverpool fans all over the world for being cautiously pessimistic on any idea of a win at Stamford Bridge since Chelsea themselves has not tasted defeat in their grounds in 86 games. Although, the day eventually belonged to Liverpool, defender Jamie Carragher, who received the nod as the game’s best player for keeping Nicolas Anelka less ambitious in the box than usual, was quick to downplay their title credentials saying it was still too early in the season.

I, too, believe that Liverpool, despite at the top of the BPL table after nine matches played, needs more than this win to convince most especially their supporters that they are indeed serious contenders for the league this season. What they need is to win against the middle table clubs like the Blackburns, the Portsmouths, and the Aston Villas consistently, something they have had difficulty in the last four years.

This Wednesday, Liverpool has a chance to stay three points or more clear of their closest rival as they face a Portsmouth side which drew in the weekend and just lost their manager Harry Redknapp to Tottenham. This is a good opportunity to bolster their chances as they find themselves in unfamiliar territory being chanced by the rest of the Big Four.

Selling spree Monday

by Ednathan Thadeu Andrada
nathanandrada.wordpress.com

The Dow fell sharply in last night’s trading shedding off another 203 points to kick off this week on a bearish mood. Despite pulling modest gains halfway into the session, another late rally southward, which has been eminent for weeks now, proved to be another pivotal setback for equities.

Earlier, Asian and European shares got hammered with even Japan’s Nikkei falling to its 26-year low. There is even talk that the US might follow the Japanese experience when it suffered a long recession after their real estate bubble burst in the late 80s. Almost the same premise now hounds the US with the housing collapse blamed as the culprit for their current woes.

The Phisix fell over 12 percent in yesterday’s session and trading was even stopped momentarily for 15 minutes due to the massive sell-off shades of what happened in Moscow weeks ago when their stock exchange went on a free fall. A lot of wealth has already been lost in the PSE in this past few weeks. Consumer demand in this country is expected to slow down and not even the holidays could make people spend in the level they used to.

Despite the peso’s fall against the dollar, it is not yet ‘all bets are off’ in terms of positive effect to the economy especially for the beneficiaries of remittances. Families of OFWs are likely to hoard their dollars anyway and this continued slow consumer spending would just keep the real economy dampened. This is a ripe scenario for a properties bubble especially here in Manila. Banks that are highly exposed to the property sector would feel the pinch which would lead to a possible credit crunch in the financial system. On the surface, the crisis has barely affected our everyday lives, but the signs are coming and their coming fast.

Europe and Asia meet as the crisis deepens

by Ednathan Thadeu Andrada
nathanandrada.wordpress.com

The weekend saw the conclusion of the biggest global summit that convened yet so far supposedly aimed to address the rapid spread of the financial crisis that originally broke out during the US housing meltdown just a few week ago. The summit brought nations from Europe and Asia and the event was held in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Many believe that the venue was just fitting since China is seen as the country with the best ability to shrug off the contagion that has already taken a number of countries as victims.

If there was something that came out of the summit, it was the adoption by the 45 participating heads of state of the Beijing Declaration which called for sustainable development by strengthening collaboration on environmental issues and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. As expected, a summit as huge as this did nothing to provide specific solutions to the pressing effects of the financial tsunami that could likely turn into a worldwide recession.

Last week, Pakistan and Argentina became the latest countries that sought for either international assistance or employed drastic internal policies. Pakistan has already sent signals that it would be needing financial bailout from the International Monetary Fund and Argentina’s national government has nationalized their pension system in order to salvage their declining to ability to pay their financial obligations abroad.

Here at home, the Phisix continues to get battered and has fallen below the psychological 2,000-points mark. The peso is steadily weakening against the dollar which now stands at around 48.90 per dollar. A likely BSP intervention in the foreign exchange market could in the offing once it slides further to 50 a dollar.

Europe and Asia meet as the crisis deepens

by Ednathan Thadeu Andrada
nathanandrada.wordpress.com

The weekend saw the conclusion of the biggest global summit that convened yet so far supposedly aimed to address the rapid spread of the financial crisis that originally broke out during the US housing meltdown just a few week ago. The summit brought nations from Europe and Asia and the event was held in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Many believe that the venue was just fitting since China is seen as the country with the best ability to shrug off the contagion that has already taken a number of countries as victims.

If there was something that came out of the summit, it was the adoption by the 45 participating heads of state of the Beijing Declaration which called for sustainable development by strengthening collaboration on environmental issues and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. As expected, a summit as huge as this did nothing to provide specific solutions to the pressing effects of the financial tsunami that could likely turn into a worldwide recession.

Last week, Pakistan and Argentina became the latest countries that sought for either international assistance or employed drastic internal policies. Pakistan has already sent signals that it would be needing financial bailout from the International Monetary Fund and Argentina’s national government has nationalized their pension system in order to salvage their declining to ability to pay their financial obligations abroad.

Here at home, the Phisix continues to get battered and has fallen below the psychological 2,000-points mark. The peso is steadily weakening against the dollar which now stands at around 48.90 per dollar. A likely BSP intervention in the foreign exchange market could in the offing once it slides further to 50 a dollar.