Friday, August 18, 2006
The ceasefire according to investors
If you are among those who think that Israel "lost" the most recent phase of its war with Hezbollah and Hamas, you need to explain why investors in Israel's stock market appear to believe differently. Continuing a story we began two weeks ago, check out the current three-month chart of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange 100 Index. It has risen to its highest level since the Hezbollah attack, and has almost passed the high since the first Hamas kidnapping on June 26.
Yes, Israeli stocks are often cross-listed in the United States and in normal times tend to follow the U.S. markets, but if the collective wisdom of people with their money on the line really thought that Israel had suffered a defeat with actual geopolitical consequences, I doubt that Israeli stocks would have rallied this week. People are at their most wise when their money is at stake. If Israel was so disadvantaged by the ceasefire, why aren't investors more worried?
2 Comments:
By 
Cobb, at
Fri Aug 18, 08:30:00 PM:
It's a conspiracy. Halliburton and Walmart buying up Israeli companies so that Americans will get hit by the next volley of Hezbollah rockets and force a Constitutional change so that George W. Bush can get a third term.
I learned this from Vince Foster's ghost.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Aug 19, 01:28:00 AM:
Anyone else notice something weird at this thread?
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2006/03/iran_16.html
