Max Keiser

Global financial markets are in turmoil. Unprecedented levels of debt are driving banks to the wall and bringing to heel the previous high flyers of capitalism, the private equity funds. So, is the world headed for a financial melt-down? Max Keiser continues his investigation.

"The great sub prime mortgage meltdown in the United States and the CDOs backed by these home mortgages are wiping out hedge fund after hedge fund and bank after bank. Mortgages back CDO values are literally evaporating into thin air, being marked down to zero, nothing, nada, zilch."

Yeah, I think the old "Robber Barons", as they were called in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century..."

Max Keiser in Germany

Financial markets around the world are in turmoil. It was first caused by the 'sub-prime' mortgage crisis inside America, but the fallout today is as dramatic as it is global. Banks and hedge funds around the world have been hit with losses of hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars.

The era of easy money which drove a frenzy of leverage buy-outs by private equity firms has vanished. The banks that financed many of these buyouts are now left with $300,000,000 in loans that they can no longer sell on to pension funds and hedge funds. So, is another round of financial turmoil on the cards? Max Keiser begins in Germany investigating the role played by private equity deals in bank closures and fund liquidations.

"Well, the people are gathered here today. It's primarily a 'street fair'. The authorities have done a good job in transforming May Day, which has been a traditional day of dissent and protest, into a street fair. The world of worker vs corporation has been replaced by a new financial world where wealth is created not by making or building things but by swapping, creating, engineering debt.

Yes, debt can make you very very rich in this day and age.

Ethanol & Bio-fuels

"Because of the Ethanol boom taking place in the US, corn prices have shot up. The US exports more corn than any other country in the world. In fact, 70% of the world corn exports come from America. Bob Abeshouse continues his investigation into what impact this will have on a developing country such as Mexico."

"Last January, tens of thousands took to the streets in Mexico City to protest the rise in tortilla prices." "The price more than doubled in three months. This profoundly effected those people in the lower sectors of the economies."

Ethanol & Bio-fuels

"In the US ethanol fever is gripping the country. Ethanol is a bio-fuel and in America it is derived mostly from corn. And that's where the problem lies, because corn is the staple diet of the poor. The grain requirement to fill a 25 gallon SUV gas tank could feed one person for a year. So, could bio-fuels be taking food out of the mouths of the poor to put in the gas tanks of the rich...? Bob Abeshouse investigates the promise and pitfalls of the ethanol explosion in the US."

"The Chicago Board of Trade has tremendous power over commodities prices around the globe..."