Citigroup is in the midst of some large-scale organizational changes, so the move to separate the credit card unit from the rest of consumer banking may not seem to be such a big deal. But this change could be a precursor to a sale or public offering. Citi has a very solid card business and […]
Read more...Belying the claim that (until recently) the economy was in good shape, the use of food stamps is rising and will hit an all time high this year. Admittedly, that is absolute numbers with underlying demographic growth. The percentage of people using this income supplement was highest in relative terms in 1994, when the parts […]
Read more...Maine weather wreaking havoc on deer PhysOrg Clueless Guys Can’t Read Women LiveScience, In particular, men interpret friendliness as a sexual overture and vice-versa. Ben Stein Watch: March 30, 2008 Felix Salmon. Thank God someone did the work…. Bagehot, central banking, and the financial crisis Xavier Vives. Vox EU The Sting of Poverty Drake Bennett, […]
Read more...I came across this terrific post by Tom Engelhardt via Michael Panzner. Englehardt takes a cold, hard look at the Bush Adminsitration’s performance and practices, and argues you don’t need to be an economist to predict that whatever limited efforts they make to address the credit crisis are sure to fail. After all, everything they’ve […]
Read more...Snake bursts after gobbling gator BBC. Eeew. Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer Wired If You Can’t Sell, Good Luck Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times Yosemite Park Blocked From Doing Repairs PhysOrg The Five Ways of Proving Santa Claus Thomistic Philosophy Page (hat tip Brad De Long) Holy evaluation Chris Blattman (hat tip Dani Rodrik) […]
Read more...Yes, I know we are not even done with the first quarter, but I am highly confident this whopper will withstand the test of time. From the New York Times: Mr. Paulson is clearly taking a stand against critics who support even stricter regulations, while rejecting any notion that the crisis in financial markets or […]
Read more...A colorful story in the Telegraph, “Hedge fund legends hit by financial crisis,” tells of the fall from grace of many former hedge fund stars. And the worst is yet to come. While the broad outlines of the story are well known – many formerly successful strategies are doing badly, with highly levered funds suffering […]
Read more...Anyone who has paid even a wee bit of attention to the business press no doubt has gotten the message that there is a world of hurt in the debt markets. But both optimists and skeptics might wonder: is there an element of reporting fallacy? Are there sectors that are OK but have gone unnoticed […]
Read more...Why is it that the media feels compelled to take pronouncements from government officials more or less at face value? By now, they ought to know that if someone from the Bush Administration is moving his lips, odds are it’s a lie. Today’s object lesson is the so-called financial services regulatory reform plan announced by […]
Read more...Oregon man stripped by Craigslist looter The Register My Very Own Risk-Based Repricing Experience Adam Levittin, Credit Slips. A law professor who studies the credit card industry has his own mini-horror story and recounts several ways the bank’s procedures violate applicable laws. Study sees Microsoft brand in sharp decline IDG News Service Nationwide predicts first […]
Read more...The US is acting more and more like a banana republic with every passing day. One of the characteristics of a banana republic is that it puts out flattering-to-the-point-of-being-unreliable data about its economy and important institutions. Alert reader James Bianco pinged us about a new SEC release today and Floyd Norris of the New York […]
Read more...An article by John Berry at Bloomberg, “Fed Actions Defuse Subprime ARM Rate Reset Bomb,” is extraordinarily misleading, claiming that a Fed paper based on a single pool of MBS issued by New Century in 2006 shows that subprimes will work out much better than conventional wisdom says. Let’ s start with Berry: Many analysts […]
Read more...Once sign of the move away from the dollar as reserve currency that we’ve noted before is the shift away from its use as an invoicing currency in commercial transactions. The Financial Times provides another example, namely, that Chinese exporters are avoiding the dollar: Rising numbers of Chinese exporters are shunning the US dollar or […]
Read more...Reader notice: a bit terse in our own commentary due to (grr) internet outage… A New York Times article, “Odd Crop Prices Defy Economics,” discusses the fact that there have been frequent disparities between cash and futures prices in some agricultural commodities since 2006. While this pattern has never taken place before and experts blame […]
Read more...Grr. Verizon was down, hence the dearth of posts compared to normal….. CBPP on Income Concentration ataxingmatter. It continues to get worse. Interview with Dr. Steven Keen Itulip. Some juicy items, including: and this: Ben Bernanke famously said that, “If we do actually find ourselves in a deflation we can take comfort in the fact […]
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