Yearly Archives: 2009

Democratic Rep. DeFazio Calls for Geithner and Summers to Be Fired

The knives are starting to come out. DeFazio claims the discontent among the progressive wing has become acute. The Democratic Congressmen who have a operating brain cell know the considerable failings of Obama’s economic policies will be visited on them unless serious corrective action is taken in pretty short order. And that won’t happen with […]

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Obama: Debt could cause a double dip recession

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Barack Obama has now come clean about his thinking on why his administration has decided to focus first on reducing the deficit and next on jobs. He fears a double-dip recession will occur if foreigners lose confidence in the U.S. dollar, causing interest rates to spike.  This is nonsense […]

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Links 11/18/09

Plastic chemicals ‘feminise boys’ BBC. I can buy the theory that plastics have a health impact, but I am immediately suspicious of a study that defines a propensity to play with toy cars as an indicator of masculine behavior (this from someone whose favorite toy at age 3 was a crash car. My youthful fascination […]

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Audit the Fed Bill: Attempted Saturday Night Massacre Underway

So get this, sports fans: the day (or maybe two max) before the so-called Audit the Fed bill (a bipartisan initiative to increase transparency) has a torpedo shot at it by a member of the House Financial Services committee, one Mel Watt of North Carolina. Of course, his amendment professes to increase transparence too, but […]

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Food insecurity in America skyrockets

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns The US Department of Agriculture highlights how the United States in the last decade, despite increased aggregate wealth, slid back significantly in terms of food insecurity as measure of poverty. With everyone now focused on the unemployment situation, it bears noting that even before the downturn in the economy […]

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Links 11/17/09

Drilling for Scotch whiskey on frozen continent Yahoo News When did the housing bubble begin? Bubble Meter Ministry: Renminbi exchange rate “not related” to imbalance People’s Daily Online. As reader Michael noted, the Ministry of Truth has spoken. The PDO is one of the various mouthpieces of the CPC. Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help […]

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Very Abbreviated Takedown on SIGTARP Report on AIG CDS Payouts

Dear sports fans, your humble blogger, along with a ton of others, got the not-very-embargoed copy of the SIGTARP report on the New York Fed’s conduct with respect to its full payout on AIG’s credit default swaps to its counterparties. The press is treating the report as if it was tough. I was sputtering with […]

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“Dudley and the Missing Lessons of the Financial Crisis”

By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. On Friday, William Dudley, President of FRBNY, gave an excellent presentation on the financial crisis. The speech was a […]

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“Should America Kowtow to China?”

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. Another Presidential junket to Asia and another one of the usual lectures from China, decrying our “profligate ways”. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports:, “China’s top banking regulator issued a sharp critique of U.S. financial management only hours before President Barack […]

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Links 11/16/09

Australia apologises to abused child migrants from Britain Times Online Indian elephants to go from zoos BBC The return of managerial bone-headedness Lucy Kellaway, Financial Times Busted! The New York Times Verifies Lawmaker’s Speeches Written by Lobbyists Economic Populist The Coming Private Equity Default Crisis Joshua Brown (hat tip Crocodile Chuck) A Franco-German marriage of […]

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Of Course, Treasury Wants To Hang on to TARP Money

When has a bureaucrat every wanted to give up on a big slush fund? Particularly one with no strings attached? What is heinous about the discussion of Treasury’s plan to argue that it should have its authority under the TARP extended is the failure to include some of the most basic and troubling issues. First, […]

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China Lambastes Dollar “Carry Trade,” Diverting Attention from Its Currency Manipulation

What a difference seven years makes. No one had a problem with Japan having super low interest rates and stoking a global carry trade, nor with the US running overly loose monetary policy that led to a real estate bubble that spread its impact beyond our borders via the creation of toxic mortgage product sold […]

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Guest Post: “War ALWAYS Causes Recession”

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. PhD economist Marc Faber predicts that the U.S. will launch a war to distract people from the bad economy. China’s largest media outlet – Sohu.com – wrote in October 2008 that the Rand corporation, a leading U.S. military advisor, lobbied the Pentagon for a war to be started with […]

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