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We know the causes of this latest crisis - fear, worry and concern. Three uncomfortable bedfellows that have wreaked havoc on the world's financial markets. What pushed everyone over the edge was the debt ceiling debacle and the downgrading of U.S. debt by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, that was followed by a 630 point fall in the Dow Jones index.
The markets are basically saying that they are unhappy with the wider economic situation - and with good cause. Manufacturing numbers in the U.S., UK and Germany were all weak last month. Unemployment remains high. Inflation is creeping up in some countries. And the debt situation in Europe is not getting any better.
What the markets are seeking is leadership, and for the moment they believe it is lacking. Take Monday's speech by U.S. President Barack Obama. The Dow had been trading down around 150-200 points until the president started speaking. It was in the hours after his speech the market saw its biggest losses.
Those traders I spoke to outside the New York Stock Exchange said that they were disappointed in what President Obama said. It was the same stuff they had heard many times before. They believed it offered no real new direction or leadership.
They may have a point. The G7 statement on Sunday evening was the same. A long winded statement that said very little. G7 members stand ready to do what is necessary – hardly ground breaking stuff. But that is all the fuel the market has to run on at the moment. Hoary old bromides and promises that everyone is willing to do what is necessary.
I remember an old editor telling me sagely: "Markets don't just crash on a random Tuesday in October." Of course he was right and he was wrong. There is always a moment when the market crack becomes a crash. In this case it is the cumulative effect of the past few sessions. That moment has arrived.
We must reclaim the streets in London
HIGHLIGHTS
• In Tottenham we have a strong tradition of activism and will have to draw on this tradition
• The spirit that saw us overcome the deaths of Cynthia Jarrett and Keith Blakelock is all we have
• Our real power is people power, we must reclaim the streets
• We cannot afford to be divided in our pain and pursuit of justice and unity, says Brown
Egyptian bloggers try to make sense of UK riots
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Egyptian bloggers watched riots in London and tried to makes sense of events
• Many Egyptians captivated by riots, coming six months after Egyptian revolution
• Blogger: I do not understand why protesters would set shops and houses on fire
• Activist: If the kids felt like they owned their neighborhoods they would not have destroyed them
False beauty in advertising and the pressure to look 'good'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Jo Swinson: Studies link negative body image to viewing photoshopped "perfection"
• Pressure to meet false ideals of flawlessness, thinness, is overwhelming, she says
• Swinson: Images in banned L'Oreal ads amount to false advertising that preys on fears
• Children should grow up in culture valuing health and confidence, she writes
Amazon tribe may have fallen victim to drug traffickers
Suspected Peruvian drug traffickers have destroyed a guard post protecting a recently discovered indigenous tribe in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, the aid group Survival International reports.
Aerial film and still images of the tribe were first shown to the world in February. The Brazilian government's National Indian Foundation established the guard station near the tribe's territory along Brazil's border with Peru to protect the Indians from outsiders.
Survival International said Monday that Brazilian authorities can now find no sign of the tribe.
"We think the Peruvians made the Indians flee. ... We are more worried than ever. This situation could be one of the biggest blows we have ever seen in the protection of uncontacted Indians in recent decades. It’s a catastrophe," Carlos Travassos, the head of Brazil's isolated Indians department, said in a Survival International statement.
Survival International reports the tribe's lands are near the Envira River, which Peruvian cocaine smugglers reportedly use as a route into Brazil.
Brazilian authorities report groups of men armed with machine guns and rifles are in the nearby forest, according to the aid group.
Authorities had recovered a drug trafficker's rucksack with a broken Indian arrow in it, Survival International reported.
"This is extremely distressing news. There is no knowing how many tribal peoples the drug trade has wiped out in the past, but all possible measures should be taken to stop it happening again. The world’s attention should be on these uncontacted Indians, just as it was at the beginning of this year when they were first captured on film," Survival International Director Stephen Corry said in a statement.
