From ABC News: ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama has decided to name former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers the director of the National Economic Council, essentially the president’s senior economic adviser. Part of the Executive Office of the President, the NEC was created for the purpose of advising the President on matters related to […]
Read more...Otter survives ‘perilous’ sea crossing to Farne Islands BBC (hat tip reader Richard) US officials flunk test of Amerian history, economics, civics AFP Bankruptcy Is Option to GM Board Wall Street Journal. I read the article, and still don’t get it. Given that GM professes that it will run out of cash before the year […]
Read more...Comparisons to the Great Depression and to other nasty past downturns (Panic of 1873, anyone?) are coming fast and furious these days. But one thing that continues to surprise me is the frequency with which the US in 2007-2008 is being compared to the US of 1929-1930. I’ve mentioned in passing that China is in […]
Read more...Reader Dwight sent along this tidbit from OptionMONSTER ($) and I must confess it piqued my interest. As you will see, the trade described in this story makes sense only if you believe the acquisition of Merrill by Bank of America will not close, or will appear to be in serious doubt. That seems like […]
Read more...The market shrugged off the prospect of a Citigroup meltdown and focused instead on the leak that Timothy Geithner was Obama’s pick for Treasury Secretary. Citi fell another 20%, its shares dropping below $4. Have banking catastrophes become so routine that it is now assumed that the officialdom will clean up the broken china and […]
Read more...Oh dear. As reader Marshall said, “Well, it’s not Summers…it’s even worse.” I had really hoped for Volcker. That would have been 1000 points on the Dow, and more important, he is the only one I can think of who has the stature to negotiate with our friendly foreign funding sources about the future of […]
Read more...I am not making this up, and this is NOT Iran, which has stored oil on tankers due to a lack of sufficient refining capacity for its heavy, nasty crude. Even though the long-term outlook for oil is for higher prices, holding oil already produced off the market is no panacea. But the intent is […]
Read more...Let us start with the basics. Like it or not, for GM to go under risks a disaster of colossal proportions. Although Lehman, the biggest bankruptcy in US history, appeared to have an orderly settlement of its credit defaults swaps, the disruption occurred before-hand, as protection writers had to post additional collateral PRIOR to settlement. […]
Read more...US global dominance ‘set to wane‘ BBC Unable to recognize voices, unless it’s Sean Connery The Body Odd Goldman’s Gold Standard Is Less Golden Walll Street Journal Sallie Krawchek, when she was an analyst at Sanford Bernstein covering Wall Street, dared to point out the obvious: it was better to be an employee of a […]
Read more...After opening down (the Nikkei was down over 2.5%, the Hang Seng over 4%, Singapore over 1%), the specter of the US stock market blasting through two support levels in two days was treated, for now, as a thing of the past. In particular, the markets seemed to take cheer from the idea that Citigroup […]
Read more...This story from the BBC covers largely familiar ground as far as the deterioration of the Chinese economy is concerned, but in contrast to some other articles featured here, stresses the political implications of lower growth. Note that while many in passing observe that lower economic growth could be destabilizing for China, it also appears […]
Read more...Um, a bit late to come to that realization, don’tcha think? From Barron’s (hat tip reader Michael): That ‘’super spike” in oil prices that Goldman insisted would lift crude to $200 a barrel ….? ….It never really turned out to be that prescient: instead of the 50% jump in oil that Goldman anticipated back in […]
Read more...Citibgroup’s stock price fell another 26% today to $4.71, bringing the week’s decline to 50%. The Wall Street Journal reports that the sudden decay is driving management to consider a radical restructuring of the company or an outright sale, moves that were deemed by management to be off the table as of a mere week […]
Read more...The Financial Times reports that hedge fund withdrawals reached unprecedented levels in October (and remember, some funds barred or limited redemptions). With the markets continuing to be very difficult and October results nearly as bad as September, more investor exits are clearly in the offing. One bit of good news: enough funds are heavily in […]
Read more...One theory I derided earlier was the notion that that there are certain expenditures that do not get cut even when budgets are strained. The subject of my mini-rant last time was the idea that women would not cut back on going to their hair colorist. If people are cutting back on their medications, which […]
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