Portal:Current events/2008 September 29

September 29, 2008 (Monday)

Three bombs go off in western India, killing 8 people and injuring 30. (TOI)
United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey announces the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. (BBC News)
Subprime mortgage crisis:
- The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposed bailout of the U.S. financial system.(Associated Press) (New York Times) (MarketWatch)
- Head of the Swedish National Debt Office Bo Lundgren says that the $700 billion U.S. financial industry bailout is based on too-optimistic valuations, and may not be enough to restore confidence in the financial system. (Dagens industri)
- The German government and private banks inject 35 billion Euros into the struggling Hypo Real Estate, a bank that is heavily involved in the real estate business. The bank had been struggling because its Irish subsidy Depfa Bank had suffered massive losses during the subprime mortgage crisis. The HRE is the first company from the DAX that had to be rescued by the government in recent memory. (Handelsblatt.com)
- Brazil's stock market had its worst one-day plunge in almost a decade, the São Paulo Stock Exchange sank 9.36% to 46,028.06 points, its steepest drop since 1999. (Reuters)
- Russian RTS falls 7,1%, MICEX 5,5%, as investors sell off assets on emerging markets on concerns that the U.S. government's bailout plan will not be enough to stem the financial crisis caused by the U.S. housing bubble. (MarketWatch)
- Citigroup acquires the banking operations of Wachovia, the troubled Charlotte, N.C.-based bank. Under the agreement, Citigroup will absorb up to $42 billion of losses on a $312 billion pool of loans, while the U.S. Government will take losses beyond that. (MarketWatch)
- The Government of Iceland takes control of the country's number three bank, the struggling Glitnir Bank (Reuters) (International Herald Tribune)
- The British Government confirm that the mortgage and loans components of Bradford & Bingley will be nationalised, whilst the company's savings operations will be sold to the Spanish banking group, Grupo Santander. (BBC News) The financial crisis around Europe deepened with the nationalization of Fortis and a cash infusion from the Benelux states amounting to €11.2 billion.
- Intervention is needed to support the US's Wachovia, Britain's Bradford & Bingley, Iceland's Glitnir, Germany's Hypo Real Estate and the Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, following on from the Subprime mortgage crisis. (Sources as already listed)
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average has the biggest intra-day decline in its history as it drops by 777 points. (NY1)
A car bomb explodes near a bus carrying Lebanese Army troops to work in Tripoli, Lebanon, which kills at least five people and injures 25. (AP via Fox News)
Floods caused by Typhoon Hagupit cause at least 41 deaths in northern Vietnam. (News Limited)
Sweden’s official debt collection agency is suffering from severe economic problems after having over-spent and over-borrowed and may be forced to cut staff to stop the bleeding. (The Local)
Brazil's government is named as the worst illegal logger of the Amazon rainforest. (BBC News)