As we have said, electricity use is a very reliable contemporaneous economic indicator. China’s power output and consumption figures say the economy is contracting. From China Stakes (hat tip reader Michael): China’s power consumption in May continued to decline. Although the National Bureau of Statistics denied the conflict between economic growth and power consumption decline […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns The payroll data this morning were pretty good given the job losses came in nearly 200,000 less than expected. But further digging suggests the number is not nearly as bullish when parsing the data. Below are a few data points. ESTABLISHMENT SURVEY BULLISH: The headline jobs […]
Read more...This development, that the Federal Reserve has hired one Linda Robertson, former Enron lobbyist and Summers/Rubin protege, to manage relations with the Hill, strikes me as a tacit admission that the Fed thinks it has an Enron scale problem brewing…. From Bloomberg (hat tip reader Matt S): The Federal Reserve intends to hire a veteran […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Global Pensions reports that hedge fund managers will see some US$50bn coming their way this year with flows coming primarily from pension funds looking to redeploy cash, according to a new report by Barclays Capital: Pension funds and family will also depose foundations and endowments as the […]
Read more...Tickled apes yield laughter clue BBC Staffer: Clemson manipulated rankings Charlotte Observer Fuld alma mater to teach financial literacy The Deal. Better late than never, I suppose…. CFO Survey: Recession to Drag on for Rest of 2009, Credit Conditions Deteriorate for Many Firms, Capital Spending and Employment to be Slashed Duke/CFO Magazine (hat tip DoctoRx). […]
Read more...Posts like this one at VoxEU, from Barry Eichengren and Kevin O’Rourke, make me feel less of perma bear and more of an objective observer who happens to have been commenting when there was little reason to be of good cheer, as far as my skepticism of the “green shoots-recovery in 3Q-4Q 2008” theory is […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal has an eyepopping item tonight: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is pushing for a shake-up of Citigroup Inc.’s top management, imperiling Chief Executive Vikram Pandit… The FDIC, under Chairman Sheila Bair, also recently pressed a fellow regulator to lower the government’s confidential ranking of Citi’s health — a change that would […]
Read more...Yesterday, we highlighted yet another indication that one of two parts of the infamous Public Private Investment Partnership, the so called Legacy Loans Program, was being delayed, possibly on a permanent basis (or more likely, it will be launched eventually to save bureaucratic face and have weak to non-existent take-up). Its evil twin, the program […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns .It’s about time. The SEC has finally charged a high level executive in the banking industry in connection with activities that led to the largest bubble in U.S. history. The accused, as expected, is Angelo Mozilo, otherwise known as “The Man with the Tan.” You will […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. It’s time to revisit global pension tension. Here are some of the stories covering the global assault on pensions: CPP reforms will squeeze early retirees: Big changes to Canada Pension Plan benefits, announced last week, were overshadowed by news of a larger-than-expected federal deficit. N..B. Investment Management […]
Read more...City slicker birds shun their country bumpkin cousins, claim scientists Telegraph Illness, medical bills linked to nearly two-thirds of bankruptcies EurekaAlert (hat tip Mark Thoma). And many of them were insured… United Plans Huge Jet Order Wall Street Journal. Dunno how it works in airlines, but in the paper business, Union Camp got massive discounts […]
Read more...Readers may recall that we were early to deride the Paulson Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit, and its different in name, same in intent and basic form successors. Every one of these had the same premise: find a way for banks to offload their dreck. But the only way the banks would do that voluntarily was […]
Read more...One of the things that has intrigued me about the financial crisis is that it is pretty clear that looting took place at the high end of the financial services industry, yet few have called it by that name, in part because it has been difficult to identify the mechanisms by which it occurred. Looting, […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. PIMCO’s founder Bill Gross is out with his latest monthly missive. It makes for interesting reading, especially in regards to the captains of finance and their desire to stay rich using other people’s money. I remember as a child my parents telling me, perhaps resentfully, that […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he has asked all government-owned companies, including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to review compensation practices: Mr. Flaherty said leaders of the Group of Twenty countries agreed in April with principles on executive compensation set out by the Financial Stability […]
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