What a week, eh?
No, scratch that! What a month... in fact, what a year!
Yes, this economic débâcle has been quite exhausting. Keeping up with it has been a nightmare - not least because it keeps changing form. On this side of the Atlantic we first heard the crisis as a distant rumbling. The US housing market was in trouble.
Mortgage holders there were struggling to pay. Did this mean Britain’s homeowners would soon face troubles of their own?
Well yes, it did... but not straight away. No, this crisis has been a wily beast. Its next victims were not other homeowners, but bankers - first in the States and then elsewhere. I won’t dwell on the details - I’m sure you’ve heard quite enough these last 12 months about CDOs, sub-prime and the rest.
Suffice to say the crisis made a big arrival here when it felled Northern Rock. And it has been claiming new victims ever since.
Early optimism that this would remain a purely financial affair has long since dissipated. As the housing bubble burst, and with banks leading stock markets in a nosedive, investors switched into buying commodities. The result was a huge surge in oil prices - and in inflation.
Yes, the contagion has well and truly spread to the real economy.
House prices are down 11% from their peak. The economy has stopped growing. The pound has fallen 15%.
And last weekend our very own chancellor of the exchequer gave his now infamous interview, in which he acknowledged we were all "p****d off" with his government’s handling of the economy. A rare display of political frankness - but it only made a bad situation even worse.
That, in a nutshell, is the story so far. But here’s the thing... I suspect you’re tired of simply reading negative headline after negative headline. I know I am. Truth be told, I’m a bit sick of writing them too...
But the bad news keeps on coming, so what’s an editor to do?
Well, there is something. You see, here at Fleet Street our aim is to be solutionist, not just to report the facts and then walk away. We can’t fix the big economic problems - things have gone too far for that. A correction is both inevitable and necessary.
What we can do is find ways for individual investors to minimise the damage they personally suffer - and perhaps even make money in a period when most people will lose.
That is our core aim, and the impetus behind my latest report.
Now, a word of warning is needed. In this report I don’t hold back. I believe the next stage of this crisis will, for Britons, also be the worst. It’s a message I want to get out there loud and clear.
So, at first glance, my report may appear more than a tad negative.
But... they key to it is that there is something you can do.
The crisis I see coming has already started to unfold. So time is of the essence.
If things pan out the way I predict - and you’ll see in my report why I firmly believe they will - then you’ll be glad to have made the investment I’m recommending.
As I say, this is a matter of urgency because, thanks to our chancellor, the ball is already rolling...
That’s why I urge you to read my report now - and find out how you could protect yourself from the next stage of the economic crisis
Until tomorrow,
Ben Traynor
Editor
Selected report:
Ben Traynor on the investment that offers you protection in "Bust Britain"
The Daily Reckoning - Making a bad situation badder
The Dow sank 344 points yesterday. Oil fell $1.46. The dollar rose to $1.43 to a euro. And bonds went up; the 10-year T-Note now yields only 3.64%.
But we’re attending a conference in the town where we were born 60 years ago. So, we’re not even going to try to reckon with the day’s news.
Besides, it’s too hot in this old burg.
You can read the Daily Reckoning in full here
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Registered office 7th Floor, Sea Containers House, Upper Ground, London SE1 9JD. Registered in England with Co. No. 1937374. VAT No GB629 7287 94
Fleet Street Publications is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority Reg No. 115234. www.fsa.gov.uk/register