Global Economic Fears

Asian stocks slide on renewed credit crisis, inflation worries

Asian stocks slid Tuesday due to fears that high inflation threatened economic growth and following a Wall Street tumble triggered by renewed concerns about the global financial crisis.

Japanese shares ended 1.6 percent lower as concerns about the health of major US banks following huge losses caused by the default crisis among riskier -- or "subprime" -- mortgages once again came to the fore.

US banking giants Wachovia and Washington Mutual shook up top management Monday and Standard & Poor's cut its credit ratings on Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley due to the crisis.

Those developments spread jitters among US investors, pushing Wall Street down more than one percent and setting a downbeat tone for Asia, where Taiwan and Australia both closed more than 1.5 percent lower Tuesday.

There seems to be a concerted effort among the right wing to paint the world economic picture as being rosy. Could it be that right wingers do not hold any investments.

We may not be in the technical definition of a national recession, but the picture is far from ordinary.