As markets nosedive, it’s clear the Smurfs are a danger to capitalism

August 4th, 2011

It must have seemed a good idea at the time. The Smurfs were welcomed by the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street last Friday, July 29th, to ring the opening bell. This may have been a good move for Sony Pictures, which has a movie to plug but it has turned out to be a disaster for global capitalism. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has since tumbled by nearly 1,000 points. Half of that fall came today, when the Dow shed 512.76 points (or 4.3%) to close at 11,383.68.

Here’s a useful summary of the market correction from the Wall Street Journal’s At a Glance column:-

THE EVENT: Concerns about dismal economic growth prospects, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the inability of officials around the globe to craft solutions to those problems sparked big losses on financial markets Thursday. U.S. stocks tumbled in the biggest selloff since the financial crisis … Prices for oil, copper and other commodities plunged …

THE NEWS: Increasingly drastic steps by central banks failed to calm investors … The European Central Bank reactivated two of its most potent anti-crisis measures in an attempt to stop the eurozone debt crisis from reaching Spain and Italy. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet announced that the central bank will offer a six-month tender of unlimited size next week, while traders said the bank had resumed buying government bonds.

And, to make matters worse, these bizarre furry creatures emanate from Belgium, home of the euro mess. And they are also said to have Communist-ic tendencies!

Update August 5th 

I’ve just realised the word “smurf” is also used to describe “someone who passes money obtained illegally through banks or businesses in order to make it appear legitimate” (see Qfinance dictionary). Also should have said earlier, h/t Dominic Rushe and The Guardian’s live blog on the financial crisis.

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Posted by Ian Fraser on Aug 4 2011. Filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry