Market Plunge Baffles Wall Street

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704370704575228664083620340.html

Market Drop Fueled by a Crisis, Anxiety and an Error

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/business/economy/07norris.html

Forbes: Greek Woes Or Trader’s Mistake? Take Your Pick
http://blogs.forbes.com/streettalk/2010/05/06/greek woes or traders mistake take your pick/

Eight Things the Plunge Means for Your Money

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703686304575228704252831856.html

BLOGOSPHERE COMMENTS ON THE 2:45pm FINANCIAL MARKET CRASH in May 2010

Stockmarket crash of 998 points – Procter and Gamble down over 30 at one point in late-trading

http://www.subprimeblogger.com/2010/05/06/stock-market-crash-of-998-points-procter-and-gamble-down-over-30-at-one-point-in-late-trading/

Remaining Problems That Could Cause A Second Stock Market Crash in 2010-2011

http://www.getmoneyenergy.com/2009/11/remaining-problems-could-cause-second-stock-market-crash-2010-2011/

Dow Jones Industrial Average | Stock Market Crash By Trading Error?

http://www.busybuzzblogging.com/2762/dow-jones-industrial-average-stock-market-crash-by-trading-error/

The Web Struggling To Keep Up With The Stock Market Crash/Bounce

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/06/stock-market-crash-web/

Where Things Stand

http://www.bespokeinvest.com/thinkbig/2010/5/6/where-things-stand.html

DEEPER INSIGHTS INTO THE 6th MAY MARKET CRASH

May 6, 2010 Recap: The Day the Market Broke

http://tradermike.net/2010/05/may-6-2010-recap-the-day-the-market-broke/

8 Theories For Why The Stock Market Plunged Almost 1000 Points In A Matter Of Minutes On May 6th

http://www.benzinga.com/266954/8-theories-for-why-the-stock-market-plunged-almost-1000-points-in-a-matter-of-minutes-on-may-

You Don’t See That Every Day: 6 Minutes of Insanity

http://www.smbtraining.com/blog/you-dont-see-that-every-day-6-minutes-of-insanity

What Caused the Crash Today?

http://pragcap.com/what-caused-the-crash-today

Does Anyone Want to Defend the Decision to Cancel Trades?

http://fridayinvegas.blogspot.com/2010/05/does-anyone-want-to-defend-decision-to.html

Algorithmic Trading and Price Volatility

http://rajivsethi.blogspot.com/2010/05/algorithmic-trading-and-price.html

How a Typo Crashed the Market

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-07/how-a-typo-crashed-the-market/

Forget The “Trading Error” — Today’s Sharp Pullback In Stocks Is Hardly A Surprise

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-dont-miss-forest-for-trees-trading-error-or-no-market-closed-down-350-2010-5

Dissecting the Crash by ZeroHedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/dissecting crash

7 Facts Nobody Wants to Hear About the Market Plunge by Steve Place
http://www.investingwithoptions.com/2010/05/06/7 facts noone wants to hear about the market plunge/

-998.50. If You Like Roller Coasters, You’ll Enjoy This
http://seekingalpha.com/article/203631 998 50 if you like roller coasters you ll enjoy this?source=hp_wc

OTHER INTERESTING LINKS

Can the government control a stock market crash?

http://money.howstuffworks.com/government-control-stock-market-crash.htm

I suvived the crash of 2:45pm TShirt from StockTwits
http://www.zazzle.com/i_survived_the_crash_tshirt 235723238369605089

The Market Plunge and Liquidity in the Start Up Business
http://seekingalpha.com/article/203665 the market plunge and liquidity in the start up business

Keep up to date with developments in the Greek economy and Europe in these Top 10 websites and articles featuring The 2010 Financial Crisis in Greece and Europe:

(1) Greek Financial Crisis – the latest news from the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7518858/Greek-financial-crisis-the-latest.html

(2) Q&A on the Greek Financial Crisis by the TimesOnline

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7021276.ece

(3) The Guardian – Greece’s financial crisis puts the future of the euro in question

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/07/greece-fiscal-crisis-european-union-euro

(4)  Greece’s financial crisis explained by CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/02/10/greek.debt.qanda/index.html

(5)  It’s Not About Greece Anymore by The New York Times

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/its-not-about-greece-anymore/

(6)  Rewriting a Greek Tragedy at NewsWeek

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236579

(7)  Greece Debt Crisis by The Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/greece

(8) The Greek Financial Crisis explained by the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/front_page/newsid_10100000/newsid_10100200/10100201.stm

(9) WashingtonPost – Greece’s economic crisis could signal trouble for its neighbors
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp dyn/content/article/2010/02/09/AR2010020903946.html

(10) Channel4 – Why we should fear the Greek financial crisis

http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2010/04/28/why-we-should-fear-the-greek-financial-crisis/

More:

The Economy of Greece from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Greece

(Please feel free to share any good resources you’ve come across in the comments section below.)

1. In depth coverage of Global financial crisis from the Financial Times (FT)
2. John Taylor on the Financial Crisis (John Taylor)
3. How the financial crisis has killed the governance reform agenda
4. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) View on the Financial Crisis (WHO)
5. Global Financial Crisis Overview & Consequences (Global Issues)
6. The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis for Low-Income Countries (IMF)
7. America in financial crisis from MSNMoney (MSN Money Central)
8. Latest Financial Crisis, Banking crisis and Credit Crunch news (Daily Telegraph)
9. Yahoo Financial Crisis News and Headlines (Yahoo)
10. The Guardian’s View on the Financial Crisis (The Guardian)
11. The Global Financial Crisis by the IFAC (IFAC)
12. Financial crisis may have been good for the climate (New Scientist)
13. Europe’s Response to the Financial Crisis (Europa.eu)
14. Financial Crisis and Recession
15. IFC’s Response to the Financial Crisis (IFC)
16. The First Global Financial Crisis of the 21st Century
17. Colorado State University Guide to the global financial crisis (Colorado State University)
18. AOL Money & Finance Financial Crisis Guide (AOL)
19. The Financial Crisis of 2007-2009: Causes and Remedies
20. Financial Crisis in Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia (Wikipedia)
21. 2007-2009 Financial Crisis (Wikipedia)
22. The World Bank’s View on the Financial Crisis (World Bank)
23. The IMF’s View on the Financial Crisis (IMF)
24. A Plan for Addressing the Financial Crisis by Lucian Bebchuk
25. Iceland Financial Crisis from the Icelandic Government Information Center (Iceland)

There are a lot of good websites and links to resources about the various financial crises over the years including the one we’re in right now.

Here are 25 of the best sites, blogs and detailed reports related to the financial crisis:

1. Global financial crisis of 2008–2009 (Wikipedia)
2. The Financial Crisis by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
3. Real Estate Financial crisis of 2007–2009
4. The World Bank Group Crisis Talk (World Bank)
5. Global Economic Crisis by the ADB (Asian Development Bank)
6. The IMF’s Response to the Asian Crisis (IMF)
7. Latest Financial Crisis, Banking crisis and Credit Crunch news (Telegraph)
8. Credit Crisis News from The New York Times (New York Times)
9. International Financial Crises (International Economics)
10. Financial crisis by the African Development Bank (the African Development Bank)
11. The Asian Financial Crisis
12. Financial crisis by the OECD Observer (OECD)
13. The global financial crisis: implications for the South
14. Interview with Danny Leipziger on Financial Crisis (World Bank)
15. America in financial crisis (MSN Money Central)
16. THE 1997-98 ASIAN FINANCIAL CRISIS
17. The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis
18. The Crisis & What to Do About It (NYBooks.com)
19. The Korean Financial Crisis of 1997-98
20. Confronting the Crisis: Its Impact on the ICT Industry
21. The Unfolding Crisis (World Bank)
22. 2008 Financial Crisis (WikiInvest.com)
23. Causes of the Financial Crisis (2009)
24. Global Financial Crisis of 2008
25. Coping with Japan’s financial crisis

Mankind is presently facing two of the greatest challenges that it has ever encountered – a world economy that has almost collapsed and a global ecosystem that is on the brink of being uninhabitable if we do not change immediately.

It may seem like we’ve suddenly been hit by a double-whammy, but the inevitability of these crises have already been observed, discussed and warned for many years prior to self-fulfilling themselves. The root of both these problems may be traced back to man’s greed and selfishness, weaknesses from our inherent makeup that will drive us to our own destruction unless we can wake up to what’s going on.

The recent global financial and environmental crises are powerful events to help us alter our mindset about a lot of things. If we look at them from a positive light, they are in fact what we need to force us to change.

The economic recession has brought about lower wages, relatively higher living costs and a depleted standard of living which has led people to be more open to lifestyle changes, especially if they are financially beneficial.

Combined with government efforts to promote green initiatives, the current global financial crisis may turn out to be the last hope of shocking us out of our ecological complacency.

Research studies indicate that men with higher levels of the testosterone will make riskier investments compared to the counterparts who have lower levels of the sex hormone.

When you combine this finding with the fact the financial markets are dominated by capitalistic male egos, the picture becomes clearer as to how we got ourselves into the present economic crisis.

If the capital markets are indeed influenced by the hormone levels of its participants, it’s not surprising that it operated with such an irrational exuberance to ultimately cause the financial meltdown.

So, does this mean that we could have avoided the current crisis if the trading pits were full of women instead of testosterone loaded men?

Well, the female sex is generally more responsible and rational but if fluctuating hormone levels come into play, we might end up with the same turbulent markets that make no sense as well.

In fact, the money is actually being spent on a website redesign as there’s already an existing “website to foster greater accountability and transparency” in the use of funds covered by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 at www.Recovery.Gov.

So, why do we need a multi-million dollar site to report on how much money the government is spending, especially as we’ve already got one?

In an announcement from the General Services Administration, officials mentioned that the new site will allow “taxpayers to see where their dollars are being spent” but failed to reveal pertinent details about the deal where apparently only 59 companies were eligible to bid for the contract.

Although the Recovery.Gov site is supposed to create greater transparency, the management of its own redesign has certainly been surrounded by secrecy and too many unanswered questions.

As for accountability, it’ll be interesting to see how anyone justifies spending US$18million on a website upgrade.

UPDATE:

As it turns out, the contract’s price tag may be quite understandable if we take a closer look at the details:

1. The current cost of the redesign is only US$9.5 million. US$18 million is the total value of the contract including the possibility of an extension through to 2014.
2. US$9.5 million is still an enormous sum to develop a website when you consider that the technology licensing cost for UsaSpending.Gov (a larger site which tracks the entire Federal Budget) was only US$600,000. Using this as a reference, it may be reasonable to assume that a fair value for the project may fall in the region of US$2 to 3 million.
3. Further investigation reveals that there is a very tight deadline on the project, where the contractor has less than 60 days to deliver a finished product. OMB Watch explains that this could be a major reason for the high cost.

In view of the expedited timeline, the premium included in the project cost may be more understandable, even if it’s still unacceptable.

CCH Financial Crisis News Center

To follow current events on the financial crisis from the legal community, you should take a look at the CCH Financial Crisis News Center which may be found at FinancialCrisisUpdate.com.

This site is maintained by legal editors who state this about their site:

The CCH Financial Crisis News Center is intended to provide the legal community and others with news and links to vital information on the current financial crisis.

Recovery.Gov

Another site which is essential for tracking the financial crisis and the economic recession is Recovery.Gov. In the site, it states their mission as:

• Education: Explain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• Transparency: Show how, when, and where the money is spent
• Accountability: Provide data that will allow citizens to evaluate the Act’s progress and provide feedback

It goes on to say:

The site will include information about Federal grant awards and contracts as well as formula grant allocations. Federal agencies will provide data on how they are using the money, and eventually, prime recipients of Federal funding will provide information on how they are using their Federal funds.

To keep abreast of the latest developments, Recovery.Gov also lets you sign up for updates via Email and allows you to Share your Recovery story.

More: Who Benefits from the US Stimulus Package?

Here’s a list of Economic Stimulus Plans which have been announced to date:

1. United States: US$787bn
2. China: US$586bn
3. Japan: US$516.3bn
4. Brazil: US$283.3bn
5. EU-wide: US$254.6bn
6. Germany (2nd): US$67bn
7. France: US$33bn
8. Canada: US$32bn
9. Poland: US$31.4bn
10. Britain: US$30bn
11. Germany (1st): US$29bn
12. Australia: US$28bn
13. Malaysia: US$18.9bn
14. Hungary: US$15.7bn
15. Singapore: US$13.6bn
16. India: US$8bn
17. Indonesia: US$6.3bn
18. Vietnam: US$6bn
19. Mexico: US$5.8bn
20. Egypt: US$5.4bn
21. Israel: US$5bn
22. Russia: US$5bn
23. Chile: US$4bn
24. Argentina: US$3.8bn
25. South Africa: US$3.6bn
26. Thailand: US$3.3bn
27. Norway: US$2.9bn
28. Italy: US$2bn
29. Finland: US$2bn
30. Portugal: US$2bn
31. Sweden: US$1bn

Note: This does not include the IMF Plans for Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia, Pakistan and Iceland.