.....................................................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................................................

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Links 4/14/09

World will not meet 2C warming target, climate change experts agree Guardian

Biomass ‘worse than fossil fuels’ BBC

NY looks into possible pension kickbacks Reuters

SEC to review whether BofA broke the law Financial Times. For once, the SEC is acting like a regulator as far as a big company is concerned.The exception that proves the rule.

It is time to put finance back in its box Philip Augur, Financial Times

The Crisis of Our Democracy: Corruption in the Financial Markets and Obama’s Failure to Reform Jesse. Includes Barron’s interview with William Black.

Surge In First-Time Delinquent Taxpayers Reuters

“Just How Progressive Is the Tax System?” Mark Thoma

S&P 500 (SPY) Max Pain Analysis For April 2009 Michael Shedlock. We are clearly in Keynes’ casino land when we have to start paying attention to stuff like this.

The Farce Behind Quarterly Earnings Huffiington Post. Key quote:

“I have been in the business 25 years and earnings have always been an ongoing mystery, but it has gotten worse and worse,” said James Paulsen, the chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management.

Fed Economists Question Mortgage Modifications Boom2Bust

Export Plummet Shock: A Guangdong Tiger Under Water ChinaStakes (hat tip reader Michael)

China property prices ‘likely to halve’ (hat tip reader Don)

The Top 10 Signs You Are Living in a Banana Republic and My Favorite $100 Billion Omelet The Barricade

HSBC faces crisis over US credit cards Guardian (hat tip reader Steve L)

Retailers call for action to prevent ‘ghost towns’ Independent

Singapore warns of worst economic plunge amid shrinking GDP Times Online

The Global Financial Crisis: How bad will it get? Steve Keen (hat tip reader Don)

Antidote du jour:

Topics: Links

Email This Post Email This Post Posted by Yves Smith at 2:22 am

14 Comments » Links to this post

14 Comments:

  • IF says:
    April 14, 2009 at 2:51 am

    I would like to add a link showing unemployment in Oregon going parabolic:
    http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/04/oregon-unemployment-rate-ties-record.html

  • Anonymous says:
    April 14, 2009 at 3:09 am

    Aliens exist… just look at that guy.

    That pale lumpy guy is build for low gravity, and just happens to fare best in water when on Earth.

    –

    If we lose these types of beings before we’ve decoded neurobiology, and developed the means to communicate directly without the distortion of language, then we wont deserve to learn everything they’d have taught us.

  • Anonymous says:
    April 14, 2009 at 3:10 am

    (was joking in the first portion, serious in the second.)

  • Anonymous says:
    April 14, 2009 at 4:24 am

    Yves, suggestion for another link: This week’s Hussman missive. Money quote:
    “Last year, I didn’t think it was conceivable that policy-makers would attempt to address this problem by making lenders whole with public funds. This is an ethical abomination, putting the public in the position of absorbing the losses that should properly be borne by those who provided capital to these institutions. It is not sustainable. What it does it place the public in the position of losing first, but it will not, and cannot prevent the ultimate failure of the debt – for the simple reason that without restructuring, the debt can’t be serviced.”

    http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc090413.htm

    Love your site.
    “R”

  • alan von altendorf says:
    April 14, 2009 at 4:36 am

    Yves,

    Tyler is questioning whether GS is reporting a four-month quarter. Any thoughts?

  • Daro says:
    April 14, 2009 at 5:03 am

    It’s an Apple i-whale

  • carol says:
    April 14, 2009 at 7:51 am

    To Alan von Alterdorf:

    The GS results highlighted mostly in the media are Jan-Mar ´09 results, which was almost double analysts estimates.
    GS reported results for Dec ´08 seperately (to end broken bookyear reporting). For dec. GS reported huge losses, which you do not read about in the press headlines.
    From Bloomberg:
    The bank also said yesterday that it LOST $780 million, or $2.15 a share, in the month of December (2008).
    The bank earned $3.39 a share in Q1_2009

  • carol says:
    April 14, 2009 at 7:59 am

    Re: the biomass is bad story (BBC: direct link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7997398.stm).
    The story only mentions lack of overall CO2 reduction.
    However a much bigger problem with biomass is the water consumption involved.

    In an interview with the Financial Times ¨View from the top¨ video, the CEO of Nestle said that ¨we will run out of water before we will run out of oil¨.
    He also said that 9100 liters of water are necessary for 1 liter of biofuel! This is unsustainable!

    Compare his per person per day water consumption estimates:
    5 l drinking; 20 l hygiene; 4000 – 6000 l food production.

  • LeeAnne says:
    April 14, 2009 at 9:20 am

    Still trying to figure out Obama’s schtick with the financial system and rule of law.

    The best I can figure out given the Bush admin Republicans were clearly attempting to postpone the crash long enough to win the 2008 election but failed and that the same fellas doing the manipulation have been kept on under Obama to prolong and enlarge the same tactics with a growing list of acronyms, obfuscation and criminal extortion of American taxpayers for corporate finance shenanigans and given that the only Obama financial transaction we know of was his “bone-headed” (ain’t that quaint?) purchase of his mansion-style Chicago family home with the financial assistance of scuzzy political pay-to-play crooked under-indictment businessman Tony Rezko is that Obama cannot be trusted and he with his cronies think they can keep kicking the can down the road, use recession as an excuse for perpetual high unemployment, prepare for the coming inflation and reap the payoff down the road of the 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) middle class consumers growing up in emerging markets like India and China.

    Goodby America!

    Please tell me I’m wrong.

  • Anonymous says:
    April 14, 2009 at 9:36 am

    “Special” blast from the past commentary on Ghost towns.

  • selise says:
    April 14, 2009 at 10:41 am

    off topic, so i thought this would be the best thread to ask: is there something amiss with the odiogo feeds today?

    appreciate the rest they give my tired eyes. thanks.

  • Anonymous says:
    April 14, 2009 at 10:50 am

    And more Global Warming propaganda… Yves, don’t let yourself distract by FACTS, because the FACTS do not support the whole global warming hysteria.

  • Anonymous says:
    April 14, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    General enviro news tip:

    Read climateprogress.com, by Joe Romm.

    Best source on science, politics, and policy on the web.

  • dd says:
    April 14, 2009 at 8:33 pm

    Turns out that Lehman has a nuclear option:
    Lehman Sits on Bomb of Uranium Cake as Prices Slump
    Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is sitting on enough uranium cake to make a nuclear bomb as it waits for prices of the commodity to rebound, according to traders and nuclear experts.
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aNJJYNBs1rQA&refer=home

    • Subscribe to: Post Comments
    | Subscribe | Blogroll | Topics | Archives | Videos | Contributors | Search |