Greek turmoil/bailout affecting all markets:

[Gerry]

I will not get into the political basis for these riots in Greece even though I have been following the news for days. There are many members on this forum who are either from or currently in Greece that are much more in tune to reason/background.

Currently the DOW is plummeting as the newsfeeds are coming out of Greece. Traders at the New York Exchange were literally watching these feeds while on the trading floor.

The Dow Industrials literally went from over 11,000 to LESS THAN 9,000 IN LITERALLY MINUTES!

It was probably the sharpest drop (nearly 1000 points) in the shortest time (minutes) in the history of the DOW. It is quite a complicated issue (actual trading plus technical-computer triggers) that dropped the DOW this much and this fast.

Currently down 400 or so.

There is strong fear that the financial crisis in Greece will spread to other countries in the European Market. The crisis and debt may drag down the other Euro Zone countries (those who's currency is tied to euro) as those countries (most notably Germany) pump millions into the Greek debt crisis.

The term being spread around is PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain) are heavily strapped with huge debt loads.


Also of note, the EURO is trading at 1euro = $1.24USD, the lowest in 14 months. Most importantly, I am hearing very knowledgeable analysts that this could conceivably reach a 1:1 ratio.

[Credit]

The fed is buying this gap, there is no way traders could have filled up that much of a hole with this VIX spike. Algorithms kicked in. Easy scalping

[katherine]

If, as an individual, you handled your finances like nations do, you would be arrested for operating a Ponzi scheme, fraud & embezzlement and locked up in jail forever.
Seriously, the states are not above the rules of the markets.

[fab]

Boo for socialism!

[Tia Wood]

Boo for socialism!

Huh?

[fab]

What caused this?

[Credit]

What caused this?

Goldman.

[fab]

The Dow Industrials literally went from over 11,000 to LESS THAN 9,000 IN LITERALLY MINUTES!

Anyone short!

[Tia Wood]

What caused this?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=goldman+greece

[fab]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=goldman+greece

Hurray Huffington!

[Acro]

At some point common people will realize the games played on their backs. Goldman Sachs along with other banks gambled US money by shorting foreign national debts.

While there is no political intervention, the game of shorting and tossing papers around works well. The problem is, when political intervention kicks in and when social unrest extends the market's instability, the game collapses.

Do not be fooled, this nosedive wasn't caused by Greece, Spain or Portugal. The Wall Street bankers know the shorting game quite well.

Billions were made today.

The Dow Jones index is not an indication of market stability, it's a gauge of how much Wall Street operates as a self-governed regime that plays games for profit.

[Tia Wood]

The Wall Street bankers know the shorting game quite well.

Billions were made today.

The Dow Jones index is not an indication of market stability, it's a gauge of how much Wall Street operates as a self-governed regime that plays games for profit.

What's worse is how fear mongering is spread because of these sick games.

[Acro]

Dow Jones was below 10,000 five months ago, with the US economy still recuperating.

Tomorrow Friday, it will be announced that 200,000 US jobs were added in April. So the fears being spread are 100% artificial.

The only reason the stock market is being manipulated right now it's because hedge fund managers have no scruples utilizing global fears. It's as if I circulated rumors your home is sitting on a sinkhole, bringing its value down.

The same banks that crashed the US housing market turned rogue once the US government saved them.

The Enron guys were saints compared to the Goldman Sachs posse.

[whitebark]

And yet the Republican party wants to block any and all reform and oversight of the banking/financial markets that caused all this. Just how typical and expected is that? They just want more of the same because it's the opposite of what the ruling party wants - facts and rational thought be damned! Add in the tens of millions of dollars that flow into their campaigns from these same groups and we see the corruption that exists top down in America at present.

[Acro]

The stock market is the only place you can make money regardless of direction. It's as if you're betting on your grandma dying while she's at the hospital.

[draggar]

The Dow Industrials literally went from over 11,000 to LESS THAN 9,000 IN LITERALLY MINUTES!

It was probably the sharpest drop (nearly 1000 points) in the shortest time (minutes) in the history of the DOW. It is quite a complicated issue (actual trading plus technical-computer triggers) that dropped the DOW this much and this fast.

Just a correction - today's high was only 10,879 and the lowest was 9,869. Yes, that's a drop of over 1,000 points but it was never above 11,000 today (it went back below that this past Monday or Tuesday) and hasn't been below 9,000 since July or August of 2009.

[fab]

George Papandreou, the prime minister, said that the cuts in wages and pensions as well as tax rises would avert a default and, in due course, “put Greece on the path to prosperity”.

HUh!

[whitebark]

Fab you don't really believe that tax cuts increase government revenues do you?

[stock_post]

Doc's math is wrong somewhere

[fab]

Fab you don't really believe that tax cuts increase government revenues do you?

No, but lowering spending does. Increasing taxes, which are already high will only strangle the economy. Debt comes from overspending!