Gekko on toast update

Let’s see how the world has fared since this morning. Well, the swashbuckling Morgan Stanley hasn’t gone Chinese but 20 % Japanese, to the sobers-side Mitsubishi, so no more swash, while Nomura picks up other flying bits of Lehman’s. So on the big picture, whadidatellyez?

“Banks May Stifle U.S. Growth, Extend Slowdown…. The London-New York tug-of-war for bragging rights as the world’s pre-eminent financial centre is now a race to the bottom. `New York, up until a month ago, seemed to be recovering more quickly than London, but we have to wait and see what sort of fallout the more recent turmoil will generate.”

The market value of London’s publicly traded financial firms has dropped by 99.4 billion pounds ($182.3 billion) in the past 12 months, cutting their worth by about 25 percent. Their counterparts in New York have lost $477 billion in market capitalisation, or 37 percent.

“We won’t see the big Christmas parties this year,”

Slugger comment is at its best in the earlier thread, real deep analysis of the trends and background and irreverent comments shall we say, about the Great White Knight, US Treasury Secretary and President of the United States (virtually) Hank Poulson. Meanwhile Robert Peston has an historic overview of what the banking revolution means. The Daily Telegraph as a Satanic line about Brown – costs have gone up by 666 per head in a year. After the Chancellor’s Presbyterian drone, commentators aren’t entirely sure (i.e. me) if taxes are going up and public spending down. The Guardian: “Alistair Darling hints at future tax rises or spending cuts” . The Times: “Alistair Darling promises not to increase taxes”. I wouldn’t take bets on which one is right.