Still bullish on Singapore property

[Unregistered]

Wow what did you just say?
GE had the biggest fall since 1987? You can't be kidding. GE is all about world economy. You mean eqvivalent amount to Equador's GDP wiped out in a few minutes? Tell me you are kidding....for God's sake. I have a weak heart.

OH THIS ISNT GETTING ANY BETTER. SOON ALL ECONOMIES WOULD GO DOWN THE DRAIN.

[jlrx]

Even in the financial world, the top brass cannot agree whether the world economy is going up or down.

Goldman Sachs versus George Soros

The Straits Times

April 12, 2008

GOLDMAN CEO LLOYD BLANKFEIN:

Credit markets more than halfway to recovery



NEW YORK - GOLDMAN Sachs chief executive officer (CEO) Lloyd Blankfein said markets are probably in the late stages of the global credit crisis that began last summer, but he would not say when it will end.

Mr Blankfein's views carry a lot of weight in the market, as Goldman navigated last year's choppy waters and delivered record results.

'We're closer to the end than the beginning,' Mr Blankfein said at the bank's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. 'I think we're getting to that point where people are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.'

The Straits Times

April 12, 2008

BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR GEORGE SOROS:
Financial pain has only just begun



NEW YORK - MR GEORGE Soros, one of the world's most successful investors and richest men, has always been a controversial figure.

But he is becoming more so with a new, dire forecast for the world economy. Last week, he rushed out a book - his 10th - warning that the financial pain has only just begun.

At the age of 77, Mr Soros leapt out of retirement last summer to safeguard his fortune and legacy. Alarmed by the unfolding crisis in financial markets, he once again began trading for his giant hedge fund - and won big while so many others lost.

'I consider this the biggest financial crisis of my lifetime,' Mr Soros said during an interview on Monday. A 'superbubble' that has been swelling for a quarter of a century is finally bursting, he said.

Mr Soros is busy promoting his book, The New Paradigm For Financial Markets, which goes on sale next month.

And yet, this is not the first time that Mr Soros has prophesied doom.

In 1998, he published a book predicting a global economic collapse that never came. Mr Soros thinks that this time, he is right. He has been worrying about the fragile state of the markets for years. But last summer, at a luncheon with 20 prominent financiers, he struck an unusually bearish note.

[Reporter]

US March retail sales rebound 0.2%
Agence France-Presse
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Monday, 14 April 2008, 9:15am U.S. EDT


Shoppers at a store in North Miami, Florida last month. US retail sales rebounded 0.2% in March after declining sharply in the prior month as consumers appeared to step up spending despite swirling economic pressures, a government report showed. - Photo: Joe Raedle, AFP

US retail sales rebounded 0.2% in March after declining sharply in the prior month as consumers appeared to step up spending despite swirling economic pressures, a government report showed Monday.

Core retail sales, which exclude auto sales, rebounded by 0.1%, the Commerce Department said in a monthly snapshot.

The 0.2% headline increase was a notch better than most analysts' consensus forecasts which called for a 0.1% rise.

The government revised its February retail sales readings to a decline of 0.4% for the overall index and to a fall of 0.1% for core sales, compared with initial estimates showing a decline of 0.6% and 0.2% respectively.

The latest retail sales survey showed an improved picture compared with February, but analysts say consumers are still being pressured by the housing slump, a related credit squeeze and rocketing gasoline prices.

Economists track retail sales closely because consumer spending accounts for around two-thirds of all US economic growth.
The gains in the headline and core indexes were the strongest since January.

The overall gain last month was stoked by gasoline station sales, which rose 1.1%, and internet retailing, as online retail sales increased 2.1%.

Americans meanwhile appeared to regain some of their appetite for eating out as restaurant and cafe sales rebounded to show a gain of 0.3% compared with a sales decline of 0.2% in February.

But the lingering housing market downturn seemed to be still weighing on consumers as home furniture store sales declined 0.3% while gardening store sales dropped 0.1%.

US economic growth has slowed dramatically in recent months and a growing number of economists believe the world's largest economy will experience a recession during the first half of 2008.

The Federal Reserve has aggressively cut interest rates since September in a bid to shore up growth and avert a worsening of the credit crisis ravaging the banking and financial sector.

In the year to March, overall sales were up 2% while sales excluding autos had gained 3.3%.

[Reporter]

China says impact from US sub-prime crisis less than expected
Agence France-Presse
Shanghai, China
Monday, 14 April 2008

China's economy has weathered the US financial crisis better than expected but many external concerns remain, the country's central bank chief said in comments reported on Monday.

'The negative impact of the US sub-prime crisis on the domestic economy seems so far smaller than originally expected,' Dr Zhou Xiaochuan said, according to the Shanghai Securities News.

Restructuring in the financial system has made China's financial institutions more healthy and losses caused by the US credit crunch were 'controllable and digestible', he said.

But Dr Zhou, who made the remarks during an International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington over the weekend, warned China's economy is faced with mounting external uncertainties, which makes it harder for policy decisions.


Factors clouding the outlook of the global economy this year include turmoil in financial markets due to the US sub-prime crisis, inflation pressure and rising protectionism in some developed countries, he said.

Preventing runaway inflation and overheating in the domestic economy remained the two key tasks for the Chinese authorities, he said.

China is scheduled to release key economic data for the first quarter on Thursday.

Dr Zhou also repeated that exchange rates had only limited effects in easing trade imbalances and their role should not be overplayed, amid the continued push by the US for China to end controls on its currency, the yuan.

'The role of exchange rates in solving the imbalance in global trade is limited. Exaggerating their effects is unrealistic and will mislead the rebalancing process,' he was quoted as saying.