Dear patient readers, Loyalists may have noticed that I am still not back up to my old level of posts. That is because I still have heavy duty book responsibilities. I now know why Spaulding Grey called one of his books “the monster in the box” (in the box in those days because manuscripts were […]
Read more...Facial expressions ‘not global’ BBC Mutation Tied to Need for Less Sleep Is Discovered New York Times Finance and the Flaw of Averages Paul Kedrosky UK defends its healthcare Financial Times and Healthcare paranoia is part of America’s culture war Edward Luce, Financial Times Ten Unsolved Problems in the Global Economy David Merkel As of […]
Read more...I have generally not posted on Friday night bank seizures, unless there is a noteworthy element to them. The US has around 8000 banks, and with 70% of the deposits in the 19 banks that participated in the dubious stress tests, we can have a lot of little banks get merged into slightly less little […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. On Wednesday, The Sceptical Market Observer, Luc Vallée, posted a piece on his blog, a simple bailout plan for housing and US economy. Luc cites Martin Feldstein’s article, “How to Save an ‘Underwater’ Mortgage“, published in the Wall Street Journal last Friday: “Here is an alternative: Make […]
Read more...Submitted by Marshall Auerback, an investment manager who writes for New Deal 2.0. In “The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics”, Richard C Koo’s account of post-bubble Japan, Koo illustrates that highly indebted corporations with depressed asset holdings and a positive cash flow will embark on sustained debt repayment until their balance sheets are healthy once again. […]
Read more...Served by Jesse of Le Café Américain This analysis from Bloomberg is based on some fairly modest economic assumptions. Most of the banks in question are state and regional banks that have not enjoyed the largesse of the Fed and Treasury like the free-spending, Wall Street money center banks, who are sharply curbing lending and […]
Read more...Reader Alex C sent a link to an article in the Guardian by Mark Weisbrot in which he surveys some recent findings aht disproved cherished myths about the US economy. Two are related to the widely-held fantasy that America is a land of dynamic entrepreneurship. In fact, a recent study found that the US ranks […]
Read more...Bear on loose in suburbs of LA BBC Wikipedia approaches its limits Guardian Video game sales in freefall CNet (hat tip reader John O) Not So Fast, Obama Noam Scheiber Twenty Notes on Current Risks in the Markets David Merkel Hussman on Post-Crash Dynamics Michael Shedlock How Much Credit Card Debt Do Bankrupt Consumers Have? […]
Read more...It was conventional wisdom in the US and UK financial press that Europe was dong a hopelessly bad job of responding to the economic downturn, that it needed to do vastly more in the way of fiscal stimulus, that it was consigning its citizens to continued recession, and the Te Germans in particular were to […]
Read more...Served by Jesse of Le Café Américain These excerpts from the most recent TARP Congressional Oversight Panel Report make the risks in the US financial system abundantly clear. Do you think that the Congress has the will and the ability to act on their recommendation, with the men currently in positions of power on the […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. The Globe and Mail reports that CPPIB rides market rebound: The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bounced back in the first quarter, posting a 7.1-per-cent rate of return thanks to soaring global markets. The rebound, combined with steady inflows from contributions, boosted assets as of the June […]
Read more...The 1980s supermodel Linda Evangelista once said. “We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.” That seems to be the motto of American bankers, (save Citigroup’s Andrew Hall, who needs 40 times that much per business day). Not only do they not care about things banks used to deem as important, like playing […]
Read more...The most interesting aspect of the latest stage of the tempest-in-a-teapot over now famous Phibro trader Andrew Hall’s contract. which could reap him as much as $100 million in 2009, is that Citi appears to be girding itself for a fight with the government over it. This stance suggests several possibilities, which by the way […]
Read more...US Government Stages Fake Coup to Wipe Out National Debt The Onion (hat tip reader Scott) The Singularity (Summit) Is Near! h+ (hat tip reader David C). They are debating smarter than human IQs. A Century-Old Principle: Keep Corporate Money Out of Elections Adam Cohen, New York Times (hat tip reader Lee). Kiss what little […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Last October, I wrote an article asking, Is Commercial Real Estate Ready To Tank? Of course, I knew the answer to that question and saw the writing on the wall a long time ago. Today, the Boston Globe published an article stating commercial real estate woes weigh […]
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