panic monday at the markets
(please read while listening to the bangles' manic monday and culture club's karma chameleon.) after standard & poor's historic but not so surprising move (yes dear, what caught many by surprise was the timing. friday? after the markets have closed? why?) last week to cut the debt rating of the united states of obama by one notch to aa plus from triple a, everyone's now waiting nervously on how the financial markets, particularly in asia, will perform on monday. stock markets in the middle east were hammered on sunday in reaction to friday's rating cut in the united states, the country's first ever downgrade, and asian markets are largely seen to follow when they open today. that will set the tone for europe and the u.s. when they trade later in the day. even before the downgrade, global stock markets had slumped after recent weak u.s. data stoked fears the world's biggest economy may be headed for another recession, dragging down the rest of t...