MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Eric Johnston – “BUSINESS and consumers should brace for years of global economic uncertainty, with sharemarket routs of the past week likely to recur, Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris has cautioned.

The outgoing boss of the nation’s biggest bank also issued a parting shot at credit rating agencies, saying they ‘haven’t covered themselves in glory’ in the lead-up to the global financial crisis.

The comments came as CBA delivered a 12 per cent increase in full-year cash profit to a record $6.84 billion but Mr Norris said financial volatility could again push up borrowing costs.

‘I don’t think the global financial crisis is actually finished,’ Mr Norris said yesterday. ‘For Europe in particular, this is going to be a many-year workout, so we shouldn’t be surprised that as we [head] down the next few years there might be all sorts of volatile situations as has occurred over the last week or so or the last several months.'” Read more.

Faber: Brace for a Global ‘Reboot’ and a War, World Economy is Rolling Towards Total Collapse – “Markets could rebound after Thursday’s global market sell-off, but investors should see any bounce as a selling opportunity, as the world economy rolls towards total collapse, Mark Faber, editor and publisher of the Boom, Doom and Gloom Report, told CNBC Friday. A mooted third round of quantitative easing in the U.S. and more money printing elsewhere is merely deferring a crisis that will be bigger and could end in war, Faber said.” Read more.