700 billion paid by you!

The government of The United States of America now approved Section 118 of the house bill, witch allows them to even raise their debt ceiling, handled with in Section 122. It also consists if mechanism, to create money to solve the financial crisis. If the money they are using to weld a crack in the financial sector consists out of nothing but thin air, these operations will shortly be followed by massive inflation. From another perspective we can put it this way: due to the inflation, it will be the citizens of The United States of America that will pay the 700 billion dollars.

MERCHIERS Sébastien

Group 6

Mile high contradiction

However the demand for private jets is still very high, the financial crisis did have an impact on the private jet users: the most privileged air travellers are flying fewer hours.

Due to the high fuel prices and the convulsion in financial markets most private jet owners are strongly reducing their flight activity and some are even putting their aircraft up for sale.

Despite this being happening, several business jet makers are still confident, because they have new orders for smaller jets. Jack Pelton, chief executive of Cessna, says: “Growth will probably slow but there will still be growth.”

Jasmien De Winne

 

Source

Dexia may finally be saved

This midnight, the bank Dexia was rescued by the politicians of Belgium, France en Luxembourg. 

Dexia can count on the three governments who will be in the position as guarantor for the loans till the end of October 2009 . The main goal is to ensure the liquidity of the renewed bank. Dexia hope their actions will be back on track and stocks will raise after the recent financial crisis .

Pieter Gistelinck

"Can't someone else do it?"

As the economy sags and neither Barack Obama nor John McCain seems to be able to manage the credit crunch, the electoral prospects of Miss Jessica Simpson soars.

In a small town in Utah, millions of citizens started singing in choir "While our men such as Bush, Barack and Oboma won't rescue us from bancruptcy, babe Simpson can!". This song is part of the successful campaign slogan "Can't someone else do it?" from new presidential candidate, Miss Simpson. Jessica's fans are jubilant about her promise to improve and establish a real system of bankassurance which contains an enormous appreciation and even a tax exemtion to all middle class citizens.

Wannes Dolfen

Restaurant offers 10% off to all Fortis shareholders

It's been a rough couple of weeks for the Fortis shareholders, but restaurantkeeper Chris Verdonck, a shareholder himself, has come up with a suprising initiative. He offers everybody with a share in the bank a 10% discount. He hopes other companies will follow his example, so dupes can recover a part of their losses.
The Fortis share reached another all time low yestarday with a value of € 1.2160 which is nothing compared to the € 29.5767 in April 2007.

Willem Nimmegeers

“Our main goal is to provide high quality Financial services”

The last few weeks, the people’s trust in Kaupthing Bank dramatically decreased. Kaupthing Bank offered the people an internet-bankaccount with 4+2%, which encouraged them to place their money with the Icelandic bank. The financial institution has decided to block the money temporarily because of the confidential crisis. Up till now people will get at best 20.000€ of their money back.

Charlotte Derie

Interesting interest

The interest rate in Iceland has been raised to 15 per cent by the central bank.
The increase in the rate of interest was unexpected, nevertheless inevitable and necessary to limit the rising inflation and the declination of the national currency, the krona.

However, the interest rate is the fundamental link between the pure financial system and all other economic activities. Touching the interest has an immediate and direct impact on investments, costs of ongoing projects which may turn the financial crisis into a nationwide recession.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/25/business/icebank.php

Ankatrijn Kindekens

Economic crisis signals trouble for travel

Nowadays travellers are putting of or even cancelling their planned trips as a result of the decrease of their financial situation. The travel agencies are noticing that fewer bookings are being made for the upcoming winter season due to the crash of the stock- and housing market. Experts predict that this decline will not recover quickly,because some travellers were financing their trips with the value rise of their houses. The majority of travellers prefer the summer holiday above the winter holiday so especially the number of skiing holidays will drop.

Wouter Heynderickx

Banks think more than twice before giving bank credit

A business applying for a loan is much likely to meet with difficulties these days.
Due to the economic crisis and more specifically the bank crisis, the terms for getting a loan are stricter than before and in several cases bank credit requests are too easily declined. The enterprises that are facing the biggest problems with this new bank policy are found in the so-called vulnerable sectors as the textile sector, as well as commercial chains.
Experts in the field of economics however warn for the consequences of declining loans to shops and enterprises and fear that this will make the recession even worse.

Willem Hendrickx

Online banking fraud

Nowadays online banking services become more and more popular but internet fraudsters are willing to take advantage of it. During the first half of 2008 losses from online banking fraud have risen drastically by 185%, a total loss of £21.4 million for the UK banking industry, revealed a new research by payments association Apacs. The fraudsters design phishing websites or use other methods in order to achieve personal or account information of e-banking consumers. Banks should design more secured websites and the chip and pin card security system must expand.

Lennert De Taeye

http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2227357/online-banking-fraud-soars-185

Rescue plan for American banks

The US government will purchase stakes for $250 billion. This so called plan Paulson, named after the minister of finances of the US, is created to stabilise the market , so the peoples confidence in the economy would be restored. This statement didn’t appear out of the blue, they followed the example of the United Kingdom and other European countries. Consequences were already noticed in the Dow Jones : Wall Streets main stock market dropped down from 376 points to 93 points.
Anika Meskens

Sexy Wall Street

Playboy is looking for women on the stock market. The famous American magazine wants to give women, who are working or have worked on Wall Street, the chance to go naked in their special Wall Street edition of February. Women will get an amount of money that will fluctuate around 1000 dollars, depending on the number of subscriptions. Playboy's editor-in-chief Gary Cole says that most of the women will do it for the experience and attention, because money doesn’t matter.

Bernard Dierinck

Keeping your money safe online

Due to a rise in online banking fraud attempts, banks have done efforts to step up their security systems for debit and credit card payments.

As a call-center transaction costs 10 times as much as an online transaction, most banks have introduced two-factor authentication technologies to reassure their online customers. The damaged consumer confidence in online banking security will be repaired by the combination of something you have, such as a software application, with something you know, such as questions that only you are able to answer and a password. With this new reliable security system and knowing that online banking will be the wave of the future, we should all consider to let the bank come to us instead of going to it.

Pieter Meganck

Card companies exploit financial crisis

One million people are using credit cards to pay their mortgage, loans and household bills. Another 700,000 are withdrawing cash from one credit card to pay off another. Credit card companies are making lots of money by charging customers to withdraw cash using their plastic. Around 7.3 million customers are being charged cash withdrawal rates of up to 32 per cent .

Pieter-Jan Lambrecht

Fortis shares took another plunge

This morning, 11a.m. october 14th, Fortis' shares are listed once again on the Euronext Brussel stock market, after being suspended on the 6th of october. The shares almost immediately dropped with 64 per cent when the stock market opened. by 2a.m. the currency was 1.71 euro, before the suspension it amounted to 5.42. Fortis Group says it has a total capability of 8.8 billion euro's of which 7.4 billion owners' equity.

Niels Duquet

A new Bretton Woods system?

The well-known Bretton Woods agreement, which was signed in 1944 to rebuild the global economy after world war II through fixed exchange rates and gold value, could according to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown better be reestablished to prevent the further escalation of the current economic crisis.
The Prime Minister said we "must have a new Bretton Woods - building a new international financial architecture for the years ahead", he believes a new structure can bring control and stop reckless economic activity as it did the first time.
Concretely Brown wants the IMF to be reformed as a central bank that monitors the global economy and financial system, with imposed rules and rates if needed.
In the near future, he will hold talks with several world leaders to negociate his proposal, in which he’s already supported by many economists, like recent Nobel Price winner Paul Krugman.

Nathan Desmidt

The end of cheap food?

One of the most noticeable features of the last years is that the basic foods are in very short supply and in this context we can easily speak of a worldwide tendency. The most remarkable fact about what is called 'agflation' is that the mile-high prices aren't effectuated by scarcity but on the contrary by abundance. There are two main arguments given: the first one is the increasing wealth in China and India, that implies a bigger need for meat, which requires more grain to raise the animals and the second one is America's enlarging demand for ethanol which is the main reason for the increase in grain prices. This could indicate that we'll have to say goodbye to the low food prices forever.

Michiel Laporte

West Ham loses big time

Nothing can escape from the financial crisis nowadays, not even the most prestigious football competition in the world, the premier league. West ham united and the Icelandic owner, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, are dealing with some serious problems after the dramatic days in the Icelandic banking sector. The miracle man of West ham united came to Upton Park two years ago and has invested a large amount of money in the club but as president of the Icelandic Landsbanki, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson saw € 450 million gone up in smoke. Nobody knows what will be the consequences for the team and their players but they sure don't have to ask for a raise in the upcoming months, and the most important question of all: who will be the next victim of this financial crisis?

Matthias D'haene

Marketing department banks fail

Now that banks are meeting with disaster, we can conclude that some banks’ slogans weren’t that striking –for not to say the worst chosen- and others did exactly what they said. The bank IndyMac had a slogan rather optimistic, “you can count on us”, but now they have to eat crow. Whereas other banks, especially some from the Benelux already gave a glimpse of what to come, in that perspective we think of the now nationalised bank Fortis: “Here today, where tomorrow?”. We must admit that the bank industry will always be a hazardous business, and for the future we have to appreciate more honest slogans like the one from Washington Mutual (“Whoo Hoo”) who admit they are running a risk.


Valerie Hemberg
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342164

Banking from your lazy chair

Banking nowadays has become a lot easier then it used to be, all you need is a computer and a basic knowledge of how to use it. In the past, if you wanted to transfer money or check your savings, you had to go to the bank itself. All those things can be done from your lazy chair now and it’s perfectly safe. A lot of people are already confident with the concept and are using it daily to check their accounts, transfer money, consult the international stock market, and much more.

Financial crisis for dummies: "Bank crashes... High-end sex workers see business booming"

It may seem quite odd, but it seems that there are only two professions who are making big money out of this crisis: first of all the lawyers, who always seem to do well when others are failing, and secondly, a far more surprising profession, high-end sex workers.

Although this might sound a bit contradictory in the second case a study has revealed that of the 150 high-end sex workers who had been inducted in the study every single one of them noticed a pattern of increased activity, sometimes even doubling their usual figures in these dark financial (yet obviously erotic) times!
How is this paradox even possible one might ask himself.... The study revealed that this was caused by the fact that these women, who easily charge more than a 1000$ a night, seem to be far more than solely fancy toys for boys as they also occupied the position of therapists giving these men the positive reinforcements they need to survive a life characterized by stress at work, huge losses on the share-markets and even worse the constant nagging of the wife!

Thibault Jonnaert

source

Put your money where your faith is

Islamic banks escape the world-wide economic crisis by their own way of banking. Islamic financial institutions pursue a risk-free policy on their financial transactions, which is in contrast with European and American banks. Trade in debts and big transactions in bonds or shares are forbidden in the Islamic financial system. Therefore Islamic banks offer a safe financial climate in the current economic crisis.

Lien Laurier

Link:
http://www.freethinker.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5752&sid=27f29f9361f7f5e0471b67d5d4ac1b1

Can the government help out the financial sectors?

Can the government help out the financial sectors?

The last few weeks and months, the crises in the financial sector have already been influencing the whole world. But the American and the European governments have been trying to recover the financials sectors by taking some crucial decisions. Thanks to those decisions the grants in America already started to increase again and both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq raised by 8 percent in just one trade day. But in Europe 15 state leaders of the euro zone decided to make some capital injections in the most important banks only a few days ago and now the governments are still hoping that the bank shares will follow the American example and will start to increase too.

Mathias Heyse

http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF13102008_086

Eat your sorrow away

While business is going bad for most of the people some
are trying to use the financial
crisis to their advantage.
Britisch restaurant keeper
and food journalist
Laura Santine invented
a new chocolate snack
called the credit crunch.
It's an ideal gift to support
the people who have a hard time right now.
So let us eat our sorrow away.

Pieter Huyghe

Source: http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleID=G7B21NDV5

Online banking becomes more and more popular

Nowadays, about 30 percent of all client bank transactions in Europe are settled on the web, while this percentage will have doubled by 2020 according to a study of ‘Deutsche Bank’ .

The average user of internet banking is a young, high educated man.
Women, on the other hand, are less likely to deal online with their financial affairs due to a relatively stronger aversion regarding the internet and finances in general.
Nevertheless, the gap between male and female onlinebankers is already shrinking.

Gertjan Lemmens

The financial crisis makes formula 1 teams crash

The financial crisis has an effect on everything and everyone, even on the rich formula 1 teams. The crisis controls the news these days and more and more people are confronted with the difficulties, even formula 1 starts to feel the crisis, for example the formula 1 teams Renault and Williams, who are mainly sponsored by ING and Royal Bank of Scotland. Williams is very likely to be confronted with a financial draw by the end of this season. So the financial crisis is a worldwide phenomenon, nobody can escape from the severe consequences.

Jonas Ingels

The anxiety of the Flemish people.

According to a survey, taken by a thousand Flemish people, more than 50% of the Flemish population is worried about their money, but only 10% goes to the bank to collect it. Some distinct results are that women are more afraid of losing money than men, elderly people more than younger ones and unskilled people more than educated ones. Once they have collected their money, they spread it over different banks (4,6%), keep it at home (0,6%) or do something else with it, for example spend it (2%). The other 90% leaves it at the bank because they are afraid of causing more damage by collecting it.

Benedikt De Vos

More burglaries because of the financial crisis?!?

Due to the financial crisis, people have lost faith in the banks and in the whole financial system and they want to secure their money. The past week, a lot of clients have withdrawn all of their money of their bank account and their savings account because they fear the consequences of the financial crisis. So those people will have a lot more cash money in their homes than they used to. The police fears that this could attract thieves and could therefore increase the number of burglaries significantly.

Bieke Masselis

http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/447669/2008/10/11/Politie-vreest-inbraakgolf-door-financiele-crisis.dhtml

Spender women?

One fifth of the Dutch women saves at least 100 Euros every month, which makes them the most economical. This conclusion was brought by the Credit Europe Bank, who had an interview with 2500 women in The Netherlands, France, Germany, Great-Britain and Poland. The study also revealed that only 2% of the Dutch women weekly uses a credit card, which is extremely low compared to Poland where 52% uses a credit card frequently. So, visiting The Netherlands, as a bachelor, could be a good financial choice.

Jasper Kerckaert

European rescue plan

Several European countries have announced a major rescue plan in order to save their banks.

On the one hand this plan includes guaranteeing lending between banks.
On the other hand the governments will take stakes in ailing banks.

The goal of these actions is to lift the confidence and to prevent banks from having liquidity problems. (BBC)


Caroline Lemmens

Unconsiously, we do what THE GOVERNMENT does !!!

The behaviour of the people to save or spend money is unconsciously determined by the behaviour of the government.
We do what it does, so if the government saves then we save, but if the government spends money then we spend too.
In saving countries, such as Belgium, The Netherlands and China,the inhibitants of these countries will do the same, the Belgians save 12.3% of their monthly income, the Dutch save 10% and the Chineses save about 25%.
In spending countries, such as the US and Turkey, the people who live in these countries are also spenders, so the savings of Americans and Turkse are very low, even these of Americans are negative.

Tugba Kalaz

Shirt sponsors tackled by the financial crisis

Although banks and insurance companies have lost money and credibility due to the financial crisis, most of them keep on sponsoring important sports clubs.

Banks and insurance companies like Dexia, Fortis and AIG are the shirt sponsors of well-known and successful football clubs in Belgium and elsewhere (respectively Club Brugge, Anderlecht and Feyenoord, Manchester United). These sports clubs were anxious the last weeks because the share of their main sponsors didn’t stop to tumble. The banks told them not to worry, for they don’t want to agitate the people even more by withdrawing their sponsoring.

Matthijs Meire

The Playboy bank robber

Valerio Viccei, the mastermind of one of the greatest robberies in history, also known as “the Gentleman Thief” or “the Wolf”, was caught by the police in his very flamboyant way.

In 1987, the Wolf and his accomplices robbed the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre, and they had a booty of at least £ 40 million, however they made the crucial mistake of leaving fingerprints while unloading the safes.
After his great robbery he managed to escape to Latin-America, but when he returned to England to ship in his precious Ferrari, he was handcuffed by the police next to his supercar.

Viccei, who shaped himself after Al Pacino in Scarface, lived for beautiful women, guns and fast cars, just like a true Italian Playboy.

Leyla Kjazim

Increasing demand for precious metals

The financial crisis has created a new gold rush in Austria and other parts of the world, where investors believe gold and silver are the last safe haven for their hard earned money.

For the past 28 years there has been a bear market in gold but now the stock markets are collapsing all over the world people have regained interest in gold and silver coins like the Vienna Philharmonic. Sales of this coin, which is produced by the Austrian Mint, have gone up by more than 230% since last year. Until recently these coins were sold to collectors but nowadays they are sold in bulk to people who no longer trust the banks with their money.

Louis-Philippe Kerkhove

(BBC)

Iceland's woes

This week, Iceland's Government took control of the country's largest bank, Kaupthing.

Although Iceland asked Russia for a €4 billion loan earlier this week, the country's Financial Supervisory Authority declared that all savings at Kaupting were fully guarenteed. More trouble for the Icelanders as Prime Minister Gorden Brown announced that the UK will freeze the assets of Icelandic companies following the current crisis. With Iceland's three largest banks now under the control of the Government, the question now rises as to how safe the domestic deposits at these banks really are.

Pieter Leyman

Inflation through the roof.

One year, that’s how long it took Zimbabwe to reach a skyrocketing inflation growth of more than 100.000%.

For example: nowadays, a Zimbabwean loaf of bread costs 3,275 Zimbabwean dollars, which would be an estimated 57 USD. One year ago, Zimbabwe already tried to undertake an economic rescue by introducing a stringent price control system, but international intervention was needed. While the country’s government is blaming this hyperinflation on the sanctions the Western World has imposed on them, critics all over the world mention the high unemployment rate and a rather “ambitious” plan to give back all the white-owned farms to the black people, as possible reasons for this painful situation.

Machteld Joly

Example blog: Thank you, please come again

Banks will do just about anything to get their hands on university students. British high-street banks are offering up to £50 in cash when students open an account. The reason is simple: although students won’t make banks rich while they are still at university, after graduating, they will be depositing their pay cheques every month, taking out mortgages and life insurance policies. That is why banks waste no time in securing these potentially lucrative clients. (The Guardian)

The English teachers

Example blog: Pay your dues

British students starting their university training now expect to end up with a degree… and around £30,000 in debt! Students are facing ever higher tuition fees and rising prices for food and lodging. It takes over 10 years to repay these debts. Luckily for British students, most parents help out even after their kids leave university. (The Guardian)

The English teachers

Blog instructions

Write a blog entry on banking and finance that is exactly four sentences long. Come up with an interesting topic and add a picture, link to an article or a cartoon. Think of private banking, banking horror stories, bank robberies, special notes and coins, the history of banking, banks merging,... Add your full name to your post, which does not count as a sentence.

The English teachers