Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. The drama at Bank of America continues with Ken Lewis testifying before Congress today. Most of the events surround claims by Lewis that he was coerced into doing the Merrill deal by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke. I chronicled these events when they were made public […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. The U.S. Labor Department came out with its latest weekly report. The data were mixed because initial claims are pointing to recovery, but continuing claims continue to hit new records. The long and short: the U.S. Labor market remains weak and will continue to be weak […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. A ‘Perfect Storm’ of demographic, individual and financial elements is poised to derail people’s retirement plans unless they prepare properly now, a global survey from HSBC Insurance revealed on Wednesday: A ‘PERFECT STORM’ of demographic, individual and financial elements is poised to derail people’s retirement plans unless […]
Read more...China is not playing nicely in the sandbox. The nitty gritty of trade seldom gets the attention it warrants, but enough mercantilist measures can trigger retaliation, which most observers agree would merely precipitate a race to the bottom. And China, which in many ways has the most to lose from protectionism, has been tempting fate. […]
Read more...Are we seeing a rerun of early 2008 in diminished form, as least as far as oil prices are concerned? Reader Michael sent along an article by Dan Dicker that contends that oil prices are well ahead of their fundamentals, and that, as before, the oil bulls are taking considerable cheer from Goldman’s boosterism. A […]
Read more...California nears financial ”meltdown” as revs tumble (Can you say “Bankruptcy or Obama?”) Countrywide Exec Warned The Fed On Toxic Mortgages Tom Lindmark (Apparently, the head of risk at CFC was ignored not only by senior management but by the Fed too. This is Bernanke’s Fed we’re talking about, not Greenspan’s.) St. Regis resort in […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. I am not the only one who sees events in Latvia as a potential catalyst for further downside risk to the reflation trade. Mary Stokes over at Nouriel Roubini’s site has a very readable post out on why we should be watching events in that tiny […]
Read more...Which Way Forward? Some Suggested First PrinciplesSubmitted by Rob Parenteau, CFA, and sole proprietor of MacroStrategy Edge and editor of The Richebacher Letter. He also serves as a research assistant to the Levy Institute of Economics. Two of the responses to yesterday’s guest post reminded me of something I wrote back in the November 2008 […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. We have just learned that Fiat has successfully completed its deal with Chrysler. This means that the bankrupt ‘Old Chrysler’ will now have far fewer cash and assets available for creditors and that it will be liquidated with large or total losses likely for creditors. Dissident […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. Yesterday, I argued that allowing banks to repay TARP funds meant a continuation of overcapacity in financial services, which was a direct contributor to the credit crisis through its dampening impact on unlevered returns. Some of the banks now free of the TARP restrictions are arguably […]
Read more...Served by Jesse of Le Café Américain There are three basic inputs to the market price of a product or service: 1. Level of Aggregate Supply2. Level of Aggregate Demand3. Relative Value (purchasing power) of the Medium of Exchange Let’s consider supply and demand first, since they are the most intuitively obvious. The market presents […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. I want to follow-up on my previous post, Full Steam Ahead? I looked at what the trading experts I track have to say about this market. Tim Knight of Slope of Hope writes that the market still seems very shortable. He also writes about his favorite ETFs […]
Read more...The Financial Times reports that the House Oversight committee wants to have a little chat with the Fed over the widespread reports that it muscled BofA more than a tad to complete its acquisition of Merrill after the Charlotte bank learned that the securities firm had posted large losses in December and tried to exit […]
Read more...One of the alleged reasons for cheer on the economic front is that major foreign economies are bottoming. For instance, Japan reported the biggest increase in industrial production in 56 years roughly two weeks ago, A comment from a Bloomberg story on that release: This is not so much a green shoot as it is […]
Read more...Supreme Court allows Chrysler sale to Fiat Reuters Speeding up brain networks might boost IQ New Scientist ECB Official Warns on Europe’s Banks WSJ.com Waving Goodbye to the TARP DealBook Chart of the day: Household equity Felix Salmon (You can see the bubble-like rise and fall in equity. Pretty dramatic chart. You should notice the […]
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