The futurologists don’t want to hear it, but live performance is booming Simon Jenkins, Guardian 1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India Independent (hat tip reader Carrick) Deflation Has Gone Global Michael Shedlock Spit and Acquit New York Times Supply and demand cannot explain 2008 gas price rise: US FERC Platts (hat tip reader Michael) […]
Read more...We said at the beginning of April, when the idea of a “surgical” bankruptcy of GM and Chrylser was first mooted, that we assumed this was an effort at high stakes poker, because there was simply no way to make reality conform with the Administration’s fantasy. Readers may recall that the high concept was a […]
Read more...Big name economists continue their attacks on the Obama bank rescue programs. Yesterday Willem Buiter, one of Europe’s most highly respected macroeconomists, continued his salvos, contending that the funding was woefully inadequate to recapitalize or otherwise prop up financial firms. The longer the US delays winding up sick banks, the more time wasted and good […]
Read more...Readers may know we have oft pointed to the work of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff on financial crises. They have built a large database of past crises, and have compared the US to past crises countries. Their conclusion was that the US looked like a typical crisis country “only more so”, and in two […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Bloomberg reports that the New Jersey pension system deficit rose to $34 billion: The funding deficit of New Jersey’s public pension system climbed to $34.4 billion as of June 30, from $28.4 billion in mid-2007. The pensions were 72.6 percent funded as of June 30. That compares […]
Read more...Pet trade puts orangutans at risk BBC Telehouse to Heat Homes at Docklands Data Center Knowledge TARP Cash Isn’t Moving Forward Wall Street Journal. On the one hand, banks lent a lot of money to people who shouldn’t have gotten as generous terms as they did, so the retrenchment makes sense. But the whole pitch […]
Read more...Buiter, in a very good and lengthy post, addresses various issues related to banking, such as the question of “too big to fail” and the future, or more accurately, the lack thereof, of cross border banking. I recommend reading it in its entirety, and wanted to focus on his most controversial argument, but one where […]
Read more...John Gapper makes a fundamentally important point in his Financial Times comment today, that Goldman should not be permitted to wriggle free of TARP strictures by repaying the emergency backing of last November, at least not until Treasury has imposed structural reforms. Why? Whether Goldman formally has government funding or not, it has been designated […]
Read more...The report by Capital One on a marked increase in credit card chargeoffs to an eyepopping 9.33% is more significant than it might seem. First, the absolute number is simply a stunner in an economy where unemployment is far from peaking. Second, Capital One was widely regarded in the industry as a savvy credit card […]
Read more...A Coral Transplant for Japanese Reefs New York Times Ants inhabit ‘world without sex’ BBC Facebook Users Get Worse Grades in College LiveScience For developers of Bend’s Shire, ‘dream’ is over Bend Bulletin (hat tip reader Susan) Lehman Sits on Bomb of Uranium Cake as Prices Slump Bloomberg Asking Questions of Larry Summers Felix Salmon […]
Read more...Now in fairness, the Administration is in uncharted waters in this economic crisis, and has launched a number of new programs to try to restore a measure of health. We’ve lambasted just about all the bank program as being based on the flawed premise that asset prices are temporarily distressed, rather than the recognition that […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. The FT reports that U.K. pension deficits hit £250bn: The aggregate deficit of corporate UK pension funds soared past £250bn ($373bn) in March, setting a record for a shortfall due in large part to the drop in gilt yields as the Bank of England’s quantitative easing commenced. […]
Read more...I commented last week on the rising lack of civility and accompanying decline in the quality of comments. I do not know if these are independent developments or not. I cannot control for the latter, but the former is disturbing and serves to drive out good observations. In particular, I find ad hominem attacks particularly […]
Read more...I suppose I should take anything said by Goldman in general, and its CFO David Viniar, with a fistful of salt. This is the man who during the October-November meltdown, attributed the poor performance to the fact that they were seeing “25 sigma events, several days in a row.” That show such manifest ignorance as […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Before I get into the latest topic, I want you all to read Rolfe Winkler’s latest post on Well’s Dodgy Accounting. After that, read Tim Knight’s Be a Fool or Fight It? (I’d rather be a fool and make money in Q2). Now to the latest topic. […]
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