The PM continues to half-sleep-walk and the FM...

is checking out the new Helcopter Deal with hawkeyed interest in more ways than one/wan.

Desi is strumming his guitar singi' in the rain, a Song Sung Blue.

While there is much hive and activities in other cuntries tackling a contagion hellbent-looming recession;
NegaraKu c'untinues in denial syndrme in mre ways than one/wan.
Did I advocate somew'ear that Malaysian leaders get some virginallesson from a 100+ beauty to stay productive? Poor Mongolian lady bum-PING into wlong party and rendered quite/quiet non-productive enam kaki bawah tanah (melayu).

Meanw'ile, Desi says the petrol price drop of another 15sen yesterady is the BN government perpetuating its myth which I alraedy wrote about. I'm lazy to pamper thee, my ER, so if you think I'm gonna C&P for thy cuntvenience, n deal. I need to go back to bed to catch 80 wink-wink. I think I'm becming another Rip wan Wrinkled:( DonPrayPuks is smirking reading this, he reminds me it's Winkle, but vvee blardy Bloggers all take liberies, don vvee?

Stocks slammed as US recession fears rise

By staff writers
October 16, 2008 07:09am


Wall St slumps nearly 8pc
US recession a 'virtual certainty'
Coming up: Market open LIVE

GROWING fears that the global financial turmoil will spark a recession in Europe and the US have again sent share prices plunging.

Wall St fell sharply at the close of trade overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average sliding more than 700 points, or nearly 8 per cent, to 8572. The S&P500 lost more than 90 points, or 9 per cent, to 907.

"To some degree, we've moved on from the old crisis to the new crisis," a senior Standard & Poor's analyst, Howard Silverblatt, told The New York Times this morning.

"The credit crisis has been addressed to some extent, but now there's the recession, unemployment, and rising manufacturing costs in the pike."

The Australian market is tipped to lose around 7 per cent when trading starts this morning.

Market analysts said that while extraordinary efforts by governments to shore up shaky banks may have boosted confidence earlier this week, they are now seen as unlikely to head off a US and European recession.

Sentiment was shattered overnight by an unusually bleak report on US retail sales, which represent the bulk of US economic activity, and a key manufacturing index.

Most analysts now say that a US recession appears virtually certain as a crippling credit crunch and housing meltdown drags down the rest of the economy despite the $US700 billion ($1 trillion) rescue plan approved by Congress that will include $US250 billion offered to banks to help restore credit flows.

LIVE event: Join us for interactive coverage of the market open from 9.45am (AEDT)

In Brussels, European Union leaders gathering for a summit warned that the financial crisis was far from over and the real cost to jobs and growth was only now becoming clear.

Britain's unemployment rate jumped to an eight-year high of 5.7 per cent in the three months to August, official data showed last night.

"We are facing a major threat," said Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, as he entered the talks. "We have to be careful in the coming weeks."

Fuelling the fall on Wall St was a Commerce Department report that US retail sales slumped 1.2 per cent in September, the sharpest drop since August 2005 and weaker than market expectations.

"There can be no doubt now that the economy is in recession," said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics. "It will be there a while."

"People have dropped shopping. This happened even before the total meltdown in the stock markets. What is ominous is that the declines in spending were broad-based," said Joel Naroff at Naroff Economic Advisors.

The New York Fed's Empire state index of factory activity in the north-eastern region crashed to minus 24.6, its weakest reading ever.

But US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke steered away from the term "recession" as he addressed the crisis overnight.

He said a recovery "will not happen right away" but the US economy would eventually emerge "with renewed vigour".

He said the problems in the economy and markets "are large and complex, but in my judgment, our government now has the tools it needs to confront and solve them".

Leading European stock markets plunged 6 to 7 per cent at the close of trade.

The London FTSE 100 index of leading shares shed 7.16 per cent to 4079.59 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 fell 6.82 per cent to 3381.07 points.

The Frankfurt DAX gave up 6.49 per cent at 4861.63 points.

There were declines of 5.93 per cent in Brussels, 5.06 per cent in Madrid, 5.58 per cent on the Swiss Market Index, 5.33 per cent in Milan and 7.56 per cent in Amsterdam.

Russian stock markets shed about 9 per cent, with investors driven away by pessimism about sharply falling oil prices as well as the disappointing global economic outlook.

With AFP and Reuters

************************************

PI Bala is still missing, but productive MI is stil hissin!:




Anwar wants probe on Najib
By Shannon Teoh
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 — Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called for investigations into the alleged abuse of power by Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The deputy prime minister is facing renewed links to the murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Malaysia Today carried a report detailing what it alleged was an exchange of text messages between Najib and Datuk Shafee Abdullah, the prominent lawyer who represented Abdul Razak Baginda, the close associate of Najib who was eventually charged with abetting two police officers in the murder of Altantuya in 2006.

In one SMS, Najib allegedly tells the lawyer that Razak — his advisor — “will face a tentative charge but all is not lost”.

Malaysia Today said this message raises some questions about Najib’s role in the case. “Why did he mention ‘tentative’ charge and that ‘all is not lost’ for RB (Razak Baginda)? How would Najib know this before Razak was charged? These are important questions which will have ramifications, not just on this case but far beyond,” a posting on the website said.

Anwar and the opposition have tried to link Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor with the murder since it happened in October 2006.

“Any allegation, particularly pertaining to those in positions of power, must be investigated,” Anwar told reporters in Parliament today.

“Our problem is that allegations against Najib, from the murder to the Scorpene submarine and Eurocopter deals and to these SMSes, have not resulted in any investigations or reports,” he pointed out, referring to allegations of graft in Defence Ministry contracts when Najib was its minister.

The de facto PKR leader said this “shielding” of Najib would affect the credibility of the government.

“How do you accept a leader who is not even prepared to explain? Of course you can go to the mosque and swear on the Quran but that does not solve a serious allegation,” he said in reference to Najib’s oath that he did not know Altantuya personally.

He added that he was not suggesting that Najib was involved but it should be investigated instead of just brushing the matter off.

And from the Outside looking in!:



Straits Times (Singgapore)



By Hazlin Hassan
Malaysia Correspondent

Pay attention, Malaysia
October 10, 2008 Friday, 03:17 PM
Hazlin Hassan takes stock of the Malaysian economy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Kuala Lumpur

WHILE the world is reeling from what is possibly the worst global economic crisis since The Great Depression, most Malaysians have been too preoccupied with their own political drama to pay much attention to the financial meltdown.

Everyone is busy talking about politics. The opposition taking over, the opposition not taking over; the PM stepping down, the PM not stepping down; who will become the new PM's deputy, who will not; is Anwar guilty of sodomy, is he innocent.

Based on the newspaper headlines, many seem to think that it only affects the US, Europe, and other countries in the region. Malaysians tend to think that, based on strong commodities and crude oil prices that Petronas is selling, they are somehow insulated from what is happening elsewhere.

Well, if they have been reading reports closely, they would see that palm oil and crude oil prices have plunged also.

Local newspapers have not been reporting the meltdown on a big scale. The coverage is still mainly limited to the business or foreign sections, and tends to present the "official" side of things.

In today's publication of The Star, the biggest English daily, a story on local banks focused on the positives.

The lead story of the business section of The Star said that banks were turning cautious but have not put the brakes on lending to businesses.

It also stressed that the country's high savings rate and healthy foreign reserves would enable local banks to weather the global credit squeeze.

As a result, perhaps not many Malaysians are even aware of the spreading fear in global markets.

This sort of thinking is perhaps further boosted by the country's leaders who kept insisting that Malaysia's economic fundamentals are strong, rather than preparing the ground for what is to come -- slower economic growth, and perhaps job losses.

Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcob was quoted in today's papers as saying that Malaysia is unlikely to enter into a recession. He did admit however that "if the crisis creates a recession in the US and Europe, all countries will be affected".

Mass-selling Malay-language Utusan Malaysia played up Nor Mohamed's comments and made it their lead story for the business pages, with the headline saying "Malaysia confident will not fall into recession".

Quoting the central bank, the government has said that both direct and indirect exposure of Malaysian financial institutions in terms of holding of securities linked to the US sub-prime mortgages and lending to entities associated with them, accounted for only 0.3 per cent of the banking system's capital base.

Further supporting this argument is the fact that the Malaysian bourse also has not plunged to the depths seen by neighbouring Indonesia, which was forced to close for two days this week after huge falls.

But observers cautioned that Malaysians must pay careful attention to events happening elsewhere before they end up being taken by surprise.

Some say this time, if the recession lands on Malaysian shores, it might well be worse than the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis.

First to go could be Malaysian exports, 20 per cent of which go to the US. A drop in exports could cause major job losses. This would then affect consumer spending and curtail growth.

We are already seeing the prices of commodities fall, particularly fuel and palm oil, two commodities which Malaysia depends on heavily for its earnings. This could result in a vicious bite soon enough unless prices recover.

A big chunk of the Malaysian government annual revenue, about 46 per cent, comes from the petroleum funds. So falling oil prices could mean the government might have to scrimp on building infrastructure and rural projects, like schools and drainage.

Also, many palm oil growers are rural Malays in the government-backed Felda estates. During the Asian financial crisis, the sentiment against the government in the rural areas was negative because many growers found it tough to make ends meet.

And job losses jumped as electronics factories closed or pared operations.

All these mean that, like it or not, whether they pay attention to it or not, the global meltdown will soon enough knock on the doors of many Malaysians.