Financial Betting Articles

OK, out of the country this week and if Gordon Brown had turned the lights out as he left the country I'd be none the wiser. Deepest darkest Africa will do that to a man.

But - what a joined-up bunch businessmen are.

Miners from the Copperbelt (that's Zambia and the DRC) - who are, I can assure you, clinically insane (would you dig for copper within spitting distance of DRC guerrillas if you didn't have to? No. They haven't certified you. Yet.) - and private equity types both African and European might be expected to disagree just a smidgeon on the global economic outlook.

Not a jot of it.

Gloomier than our hotel during the power cut.

But this wasn't the only thing they agreed on (that I can print, anyway). There was a universal and unshakeable and quite passionate consensus that the Powers That Be, the world's banks and leading economists didn't have a clue about how to run any economy.

We sat around trying to name a leading investor or economic pundit who had predicted the sorry mess we're still sliding into. Nyet. George Soros and that Black Swans fella got honourable mentions. But that was about it.

The other universally agreed sentiment was - and I'll rephrase this for the blue-rinses present - that the market was suffering from a gastric complaint that needed to, erm, pass. Like there was hidden nasties in there that we needed to get out of the global economic system. Couldn't agree more.

All in all, a rather bearish sentiment. Now, if that isn't the biggest Buy signal you're ever going to get I don't know what is. (And there's me coming back to the biggest weekly rise since 1932 - the end of the Great Depression! Like I always say "No-one knows anything.")

P.S. Did you know that the Anglo-Zanzibar war of August 27th 1896 was the shortest war in history? 40 minutes. Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to.

FTSE 100 made its biggest jump in percentage terms ever on 24th November 2008, +9.84%.

FTSE 100 advanced 13.41% this week.

DAX advanced 13.13% this week.

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