[lorenzo]

The boss of the world's 20th largest company and one of the biggest banks on the planet - Fortis - says there will soon be a "total meltdown" of the financial markets, starting in the U.S. According to Chairman Maurice Lippens, we haven't seen anything yet. 6000 banks in the U.S. are at risk of going bankrupt. The situation is far worse than Fortis expected.

Lippens explicitly uses the meltdown metaphor, to stress that this will not be a gradual decline or a continuation of the current "crisis", but an explosive and uncontainable crash. Fortis stock has lost 68% of its value over the past year. Last week, on Thursday, it crashed and lost 19% in one hours time after a capital injection it said was needed to counter the predicted crash.

American ‘meltdown’ reason for money injection Fortis.
28th of June, 9:10
BRUSSELS/AMSTERDAM - Fortis expects a complete collapse of the US financial markets within a few days to weeks. That explains, according to Fortis, the series of interventions of last Thursday to retrieve € 8 billion. “We have been saved just in time. The situation in the US is much worse than we thought”, says Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens. Fortis expects bankruptcies amongst 6000 American banks which have a small coverage currently. But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US”

Doomcast sources: link and link

On a side note: interestingly, the bank, one of Europe's largest, sees crude averaging 125.70 this year, 171.50 next year and 224.90 in 2010.

Fortis: crash en bourse apres l'annonce d'une augmentation de capital link

[catbox]

CNN ran a story about Fortis on the 26th that stated: Fortis "anticipates a continued challenging market environment." now it's "financial meltdown". This might have something to it!
Off to work......while it's still there!
catbox

[Leanan]

Wow. That OpEdNews guy stole my blog entry word for word, without a link back or anything.

[HEADER_RACK]

Best news I've heard all day

[TheAntiDoomer]

“But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US”

C'mon guys, what was this written by a 10 year old geez.

[Leanan]

C'mon guys, what was this written by a 10 year old geez.

It was written in Dutch, and translated to English. Probably by software like Babelfish or something similar.

[Jotapay]

“But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US” C'mon guys, what was this written by a 10 year old geez.

No, but the text I quoted here was. One does not become chairperson of the world's 20th largest company by acting like a 10-year-old boy.

[TheAntiDoomer]

No, but the text I quoted here was.

You are a pretty clever fella What do they pay down at the chicken shack?

[Jotapay]

Very well at the moment.

[Homesteader]

“But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US.” C'mon guys, what was this written by a 10 year old geez.

No, but the text I quoted here was. One does not become chairperson of the world's 20th largest company by acting like a 10-year-old boy.

or put out "alarmist" statements with out good cause. Seems OF2's cousin has started posting.

[pedalling_faster]

it's not a meltdown, it's a ... Crash-Ette
"For many money managers, a new month and (especially) a new quarter is a time to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. But July 1 only brought an acceleration of the prior trend; namely, falling stock prices as a steep selloff in Europe triggered another wave of selling in the U.S. early Tuesday. (Stocks did bounce from their early lows, however, after the ISM report showed manufacturing unexpectedly expanded in June.)

The current phase of the downturn is nearing its conclusion, but that makes the market vulnerable to a "crash-ette," says Scott Bleier, president of HybridInvestors.com, who notes the last throes of a bear market are often most painful"

the calm before the storm
the crashette after (during, or before) the crash
no shortage of Rhetoric Re-packaging Recession.

[socrates1fan]

U ppl and your predictions. its eerie. Someone on here predicted that the financial market would go down like a rollercoaster this summer. Predict I get a million dollars! =D I'll have something to burn for fuel.

[Zardoz]

U ppl and your predictions.
its eerie. Someone on here predicted that the financial market would go down like a rollercoaster this summer.

Last day of summer is September 22 and you're already writing off the prediction? Please explain.

[lorenzo]

it's not a meltdown, it's a ... Crash-Ette.

Franglais is definitivelyment my favorite language.

[NoWorries]

it's not a meltdown, it's a ... Crash-Ette
"For many money managers, a new month and (especially) a new quarter is a time to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. But July 1 only brought an acceleration of the prior trend; namely, falling stock prices as a steep selloff in Europe triggered another wave of selling in the U.S. early Tuesday. (Stocks did bounce from their early lows, however, after the ISM report showed manufacturing unexpectedly expanded in June.)
The current phase of the downturn is nearing its conclusion, but that makes the market vulnerable to a "crash-ette," says Scott Bleier, president of HybridInvestors.com, who notes the last throes of a bear market are often most painful"
the calm before the storm
the crashette after (during, or before) the crash
no shortage of Rhetoric Re-packaging Recession.

That's actually optimistic news in that item. He's saying we're in the "last throes" (final stages) of the current bear market. Last throes means the bear market is about to end.

[burtonridr]

Just the fact that a guy that high up and someone that has that much vested interest in the good of the community would say something like that freaks me out. People that own businesses of that scale usually dont forecast doom, its bad for business, its bad for him.

[socrates1fan]

U ppl and your predictions. its eerie. Someone on here predicted that the financial market would go down like a rollercoaster this summer.

Last day of summer is September 22 and you're already writing off the prediction? Please explain.

I wasn't. 0_o Hrm.. my post does seem sarcastic doesn't it?
It could or couldn't happen but I'm more likely to believe that my car is going to fall off a cliff if I'm driving towards the edge than believe my car is going to magically gain wings.

[socrates1fan]

Just the fact that a guy that high up and someone that has that much vested interest in the good of the community would say something like that freaks me out. People that own businesses of that scale usually dont forecast doom, its bad for business, its bad for him.

I should probably start counting the value of my change by its value in metal.

[mmasters]

Possible but not likely. I'm sure we will have a diversion soon where all kinds of underhanded tinkering in the market will happen.