A North Atlantic economic crisis

It was a dramatic week right across the financial and economic world. It started with a historic decision to strip the US of its AAA credit rating, and turned into a rollercoaster week for global stock markets – down as much as 20 per cent, and wiping almost $7tn off the value of stocks.  

And to top it off, there was still no strong political leadership from the Eurozone, and a forced move from the European Central Bank to buy up Italian and Spanish bonds. All-in-all, it is a North Atlantic crisis but one that has enough clout to damage economies globally.

Also, in the wake of the US downgrade, China has continued to cast doubt and indeed pour scorn on Washington’s handling of the debt crisis. But it keeps buying up US bonds, so what is China’s game now?

And one of the features of the market meltdown has been the rapid rise in the price of gold, everyone’s favourite safe haven in times of financial trouble. We are in Thailand where the demand is so high that it is outstripping supply. 

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