Bloomberg notes that, as of 2007: In Missouri, about 100 percent who were eligible [for food stamps] that year took advantage of the program, the highest rate in the nation, followed by residents of Maine and Michigan, at 91 percent and 89 percent, respectively … Things have gotten much worse since 2007: As the New […]
Read more...U.S. Foreclosures to Reach 3.9 Million in Second Record Year Bloomberg Thousands of Stimulus Reports Missing, Resulting in Potential Undercount of Jobs Created ProPublica (hat tip reader John D) Male Employment at Lowest Level on Record Matt Yglesias What’s behind mixed signals from Obama and Geithner on TARP? Christian Science Monitor (hat tip reader John […]
Read more...Readers may recall a 2008 study that found a link between testosterone levels and same-day trading performance. A typical summary: John Coates and Joe Herbert from the University of Cambridge shadowed 17 male traders over 8 working days as they went about their business in a mid-sized City of London trading floor (the City is […]
Read more...I am not sure whether Potemkin reform is worse than no reform at all, except the latter makes it abundantly clear that America is in the hands of a corrupt plutocratic elite. The latest, from the Huffington Post, is that the normal flurry of last minute amendments to gut legislation has gone one step further, […]
Read more...Has Moko the dolphin flipped? Sydney Morning Herald. Reader Crocodile Chuck informs us that this Moko is the same Moko of my favorite story of 2008. I hope he doesn’t get in trouble. This decade ‘warmest on record’ BBC We have entered the moment when the Greek crisis is turning dangerous Eurointelligence May I Say […]
Read more...What is truly remarkable about two comments in the last two days in the august Financial Times, is that they both say protectionism against China is likely. One actually urges it, the other pretty much says it’s a-comin’ unless China mends its ways. And both pieces were written by reputable economists, the last people you’d […]
Read more...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. It has been almost a week since the Bernanke testimony and since the dust has settled, two exchanges stand […]
Read more...Tall Paul is my hero. I would go further than he did in a speech in Sussex. The case can made that financial innovation of the OTC derivatives variety, which has mushroomed from 1992 onward, has been at best a wealth transfer device from the real economy to the financial economy, and has probably exacted […]
Read more...By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns I am not sure I buy Meredith Whitney’s assertion that the government is “out of bullets” in its quest to prop up the economy. It’s a matter of political will more than anything else. Nevertheless, I do agree with her basic premise in the CNBC video below that the […]
Read more...We’ve commented repeatedly and disapproving of the increasing operation of the Fed as an off balance sheet vehicle of the Treasury, in violation of normal budgetary processes (as have some former central bankers, most notably Willem Buiter). Even thought Congress has been attempting to beat back the expansion of the Fed’s authority that Team Obama […]
Read more...Paul Krugman argues that cap and trade worked to reduce sulfur dioxide and stop acid rain, and so it will work to reduce C02. However, two EPA lawyers with more than 40 years of cumulative experience – including the guy who has been head of California’s cap and trade offset programs for more than 20 […]
Read more...Can we end aging by 2029? h+ (hat tip reader David C). I don’t think I can wait that long…I most certainly do not want to live forever (competition for resources will get nasty before you factor in possible developments like this), but physical decay sucks. Ancient site reveals signs of mass cannibalism BBC. Speaking […]
Read more...The New York Times has a generally solid piece. “Debt Raters Avoid Overhaul After Crisis,” by David Segal, on how pretty much nothing meaningful is being done to reform the rating agencies. That of course is particularly disturbing since there are only three agencies that count, and they do not posses anything remotely resembling the […]
Read more...The ongoing tempest in a teapot about executive compensation at AIG appears to be a bit of Kabuki theater designed to divert attention from the real drama, which is the continuing sweetening of the deal to the troubled insurer. We will get to Congressman Alan Grayson’s pointed questions to Bernanke about the latest de facto […]
Read more...As I have previously shown, speculative derivatives (especially credit default swaps or “CDS”) are a primary cause of the economic crisis. They were largely responsible for bringing down Bear Stearns, AIG (and see this), WaMu and other mammoth corporations. According to top experts, risky derivatives were not only largely responsible for bringing down the American […]
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