Monday, January 28, 2008

It's The End of The World- IMF head in shock fiscal warning

Last September, during the run on Northern Rock, we passed along the first rule of bank runs:
"He who panics first, panics best".
Looking at the headlines of the last three posts I started giggling.
(HEY! It's a manly giggle).
Yes, we're all going to die. No it's not the end 0f the world.

Here's R.E.M., live.
Here's President Bush covering R.E.M.
Here's Skeeter Davis doing a different "End of the World" song.
Here's the IMF's Managing director:

The intensifying credit crunch is so severe that lower interest rates alone will not be enough “to get out of the turmoil we are in”, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned at the weekend.

In a dramatic volte face for an international body that as recently as the autumn called for “continued fiscal consolidation” in the US, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the new IMF head, gave a green light for the proposed US fiscal stimulus package and called for other countries to follow suit. “I don’t think we would get rid of the crisis with just monetary tools,” he said, adding “a new fiscal policy is probably today an accurate way to answer the crisis”....MORE

Here's the WSJ's Daily Davos blog:

Depression Session Fills Up

Given the negative sentiment around the World Economic Forum this week, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a panel discussion centering on depression treatment was full. In fact, it was one of only three discussions that were full on a day when 28 panels were available for sign-ups. Activity typically winds down on Saturday ahead of the official end on Sunday.

The panel, titled “Mood Manipulation” features a new form of therapy for depression. Karl Deisseroth, assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, discusses the use of minimally invasive tools, such as electromagnetic induction and light sensitive implants, that specifically target that emotion....