Like sports achievements, I have no doubt this so-called record will be broken soon, and in short order. From the Financial Times: US credit card delinquencies hit a record high in January, and further deterioration is likely as the economy slows down and unemployment rises, Fitch Ratings says. Payments at least 60 days late rose […]
Read more...Number of alien worlds quantified BBC Doctors test latest attempt at artificial liver Associated Press Young Australian Puts a New Spin on Bowling: He Throws Two-Handed Wall Street Journal Former VP Dick Cheney warns of nuclear attack on United States under President Obama Daily News (hat tip reader Dwight). Wonder how he can be so […]
Read more...Your humble blogger, and the vast majority of readers have been pretty skeptical of the notion that the Fed could absorb $29 billion of risk on $30 billion of dodgy Bear Stearns assets and come out whole (JP Morgan takes the loss on the first billion and change). Despite reports from the Fed showing no […]
Read more...Guest blogger and former Congressional staffer Lune was kind enough to provide this post on Volcker’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today. Enjoy! From Lune: Paul Volcker, former Fed chief and currently the head of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and the chairman of the Group of Thirty, testified to the Senate Banking […]
Read more...L’affaire Madoff gets more interesting by the day. I had though the failure to pursue the hedge fund scamster had more to do with incompetence and a disinclination to go after investment managers (insider trading cases, which is what seems to get the SEC’s enforcement division juices going, usually pick up penny ante players at […]
Read more...Note to regular readers: a variant of this post ran in early January. I recognize for most readers this is a distraction, for a minority, a curiousity, and for a very few, of possible interest for them or someone they know. So I ask you to indulge me here. I thought I would introduce a […]
Read more...Surgeons Use Microwaves to Destroy Tumors PhysOrg Alzheimer’s ‘is brain diabetes’ BBC Trial Begins for HIV Gene Therapy Wired Chinese earthquake may have been man-made, say scientists Telegraph Bad Bank/Worse Bank Accrued Interest Private equity ‘next bubble to burst’, unions warn Guardian TPG ends talks over stake sale Financial Times. Vanity and delusion knows no […]
Read more...I believe I am permitted to hyperventilate only once in an evening, so I’ll have to act with a modicum of restraint here. The Obama executive compensation restrictions for bailout fund recipients have been leaked, and may be long enough on appearances to appease an angry US electorate. But the shortcomings of the supposedly tough […]
Read more...Oof, that key phrase in Martin Wolf’s column in the Financial Times, “Why Davos Man is waiting for Obama to save him,” is only slightly more cheery than, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Wolf gives a quick recap of Davos, recent international economic forecasts and market developments, which is worth reading, and then […]
Read more...Dear God, let’s just kiss the US economy goodbye. It may take a few years before the loyalists and permabulls throw in the towel, but the handwriting is on the wall. The Obama Administration, if the Washington Post’s latest report is accurate, is about to embark on a hugely expensive “save the banking industry at […]
Read more...Norfolk tigers fascinated by snow BBC. A nice video clip. Iran launches first home-made satellite Reuters Obama’s Ethics Reform Promise Faces Early Test New York Times. And is found wanting. Fitch Downgrades California’s $5B RANs to ‘F2’ MarketWatch (hat tip reader Ed) Goldman Says Buy Puts Because U.S. Stocks May Resume Retreat Investor Village (hat […]
Read more...At the risk of losing all cred with tech enthusiast readers, let me use a suggestion (from Dwight) as a point of departure: I thought I would recommend that you both consider adopting Twitter as part of your blogging presence in 2009. Twitter was organized in 2006 and hit 6 million registered users by the […]
Read more...The Milken Institute has released a new report on the housing/credit crisis, which is a preview of a book to be released this spring (hat tip reader Dwight). What I found particularly interesting, given the Institute’s conservative leanings, is that the policy recommendations were on the whole, middle of the road. They acknowledged the need […]
Read more...Admittedly, the report from Emirates Business 24/7 (hat tip reader Michael) is only one expert’s opinion, but it focuses on an issue that hasn’t gotten the attention it warrants, namely, the level of the current oil glut and how much it is going to take to work it down. The subtext of this piece is […]
Read more...Before we get to the substance of this post, I feel compelled to address the responses I have increasingly been getting when I post on unemployment in China, particularly demonstrations by workers (who often show up to work, find the factory shuttered and themselves stiffed for their last paycheck) and the fact that many of […]
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