The start of credit card and ATM card refusals (As predicted)
Russia begins to refuse credit cards in worsening global financial crisis
Russian businesses have begun to refuse credit cards as the global financial crisis worsens.
Several Moscow city centre restaurants are now refusing to accept cards in a move not seen since Russia's last financial crisis almost a decade ago.
Some automated teller machines at Sberbank, the country's biggest state-owned bank, have also stopped accepting cards from other banks.
Several electronics and mobile phone stores said they no longer accepted credit card purchases.
Over the weekend, Aeroflot, the biggest Russian airline, announced it had stopped taking credit cards payments for flights except from a handful of banks
Continued here:
Russia begins to refuse credit cards in worsening global financial crisis - Telegraph
Ho, hum, I'm getting a bit too good at this predicting thingy...
Another reason why the UK's banks are stuffed
For those still in denial, the relentless ratchet of bankruptcy turns...
GM today announced a third-quarter loss of $4.2 billion (adjusted, $2.5 billion reported) on revenues of $37 billion while spending $6.9 billion of their lifeblood-like cash on hand. Although initially we thought the big news here was a cash spend of $2.3 billion per month, compared to around $1.1 billion a month in the previous quarter, but the real story is that GM basically acknowledged what we said first last month that bankruptcy is imminent (and we might add, were laughed at by some members of the auto intelligentsia for it) — as close as the end of the year if GM doesn't receive help.
Why is the cash burn rate so important? GM isn't exactly cash rich and needs to have at least $10 billion to operate and currently has around $15.8 billion on hand. This means that if the current trend continues the company will be unable to operate in approximately three months, meaning that they'll have to declare bankruptcy as we previously outlined. GM itself basically admits this themselves saying:
"Even if GM implements the planned operating actions that are substantially within its control, GM's estimated liquidity during the remainder of 2008 will approach the minimum amount necessary to operate its business. Looking into the first two quarters of 2009, even with its planned actions, the company's estimated liquidity will fall significantly short of that amount unless economic and automotive industry conditions significantly improve, it receives substantial proceeds from asset sales, takes more aggressive working capital initiatives, gains access to capital markets and other private sources of funding, receives government funding under one or more current or future programs, or some combination of the foregoing."
To summarize: give us some money or we're going to go bankrupt and the economy will have to grapple with the horror of hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers. Announcement from General Motors below.
From:
Gm: GM Declares Bankruptcy Imminent After $4.2 Billion Third Quarter Loss
$85BN Doesn't Go As Far As It Used To...
AIG reportedly in talks over new bailout
By MarketWatch
Last update: 10:49 a.m. EST Nov. 8, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- American International Group Inc. reportedly is seeking a new bailout from the U.S. government less than two months after the Federal Reserve came to the insurance giant's rescue with an $85 billion loan, according to a published report.
The Financial Times reported on its Web site late Friday, citing people close to the situation, that AIG executives were in negotiations Friday night with authorities over a plan that could involve a debt-for-equity swap and the government's purchase of mortgage-backed securities from AIG.
The FT said talks might still collapse, but noted that the insurer was pressing for a decision before it posts third-quarter results on Monday.
American International Group Inc. is expected to report third-quarter loss of 90 cents a share, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Leading industry analysts have said that turmoil in equity and credit markets has been hampering AIG's efforts to sell some of its businesses, a crucial part of the insurer's plan to repay billions of dollars in expensive government loans.
Rival insurers that may be considering bidding for AIG businesses are now facing their own problems as slumping stock prices and wider credit spreads cut into capital, Andrew Kligerman of UBS wrote to investors about a week ago.
That's slowing what investors hoped would be fast asset sales by AIG, possibly preventing the insurer from quickly repaying the Federal Reserve's loan, the analyst wrote.
Wider credit spreads may be triggering more demands for AIG to post collateral to support the credit default swaps it wrote. That likely increases the amount of money the insurer has to borrow from the Fed, which, in turn, means even more asset sales, the analyst explained.
Kligerman said he expected that AIG would take about $25 billion in write-downs on its credit default swap exposures when the insurer reports third-quarter results.
From:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...6DDE1BD2E55%7D
When will they see that it is simply a black hole, along with the rest of the banking system?:(