When AIG first went to the government for rescue funding, the insurer had said it would pay the proceeds of the emergency loans from the sale of assets, meaning some of its subsidiary businesses. As we now know, that effort did not bear fruit. One unit that was a candidate for sale, AIG’s aircraft lease […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. President Obama presented a sober assessment of the state of the economy in a prime time news conference Tuesday, but he insisted his administration has a strategy in place to “attack this crisis on all fronts.” I listened to the news conference and I was not impressed […]
Read more...Chimps use geometry to navigate the jungle New Scientist Anti-Dollar Contagion Gains Pace Huffington Post Successful bank rescue still far away Martin Wolf, Financial Times The new toxic and bad legacy assets programs of the US Treasury: surreptitiously squeezing the tax payer and the Fed until the PPIPs squeak Willem Buiter 10 Headlines You Won’t […]
Read more...Note the dramatic fall in Japanese exports in February was relative to the year-ago level, but that does not make the outcome any less ugly. From Bloomberg: Overseas shipments fell 49.4 percent from a year earlier, the sharpest decline since at least 1980, when the government started to keep comparable data, the Finance Ministry said […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns Edward Harrison here. Yves is away today, so I thought I would spur discussion with a thought regarding the Geithner Plan and Japan. As I see it, the Geithner Plan is inadequate because it assumes illiquidity where insolvency is the problem. The long and short of it, […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns Edward Harrison here. This is a post I published just last night over at Credit Writedowns with some minor edits. Barack Obama’s presidency will likely be decided by one single issue – his ability to deal with this financial crisis. With the release of his Treasury […]
Read more...Wildlife flee Kenyan forest fires BBC Fixing a Genetic Flaw MIT Technology Review Japanese savings shrink Japan Economy Watch AIG furor may have helped funds in U.S. toxic plan Reuters The Stimulus Package Considered against a Deteriorating Macro Backdrop Menzie Chinn, Econbrowser The threat posed by ballooning Federal reserves John Taylor, Financial Times Geithner’s trillion […]
Read more...There have been plenty of takedowns on the plan (Leo provides a good recap in an earlier post tonight). Nevertheless, I thought I’d add a few further thoughts Aside from being busy, I didn’t weigh in because I don’t see that much has changed (obviously, Mr. Stock Market disagrees vehemently, but bonds didn’t move much […]
Read more...The Washington Post reports that Treasury will seek the power to take over insurers, hedge funds, and investment firms. Given the Treasury’s reluctance to assume control over clearly insolvent banks (Citi assuredly, probably Bank of America), it seems curious indeed that it is asking to extend authority that it is patently reluctant to exercise. Moreover, […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Wall Street got the news it wanted on the economy’s biggest problems — banks and housing — and celebrated by hurtling the Dow Jones industrials up nearly 500 points: Investors added rocket fuel Monday to a two-week-old advance, cheering the government’s plan to help banks remove bad […]
Read more...We’ve been treated as being a bit daft when we dared suggest that the dollar’s status as reserve currency was at risk. But after the Fed moved officially to quantitative easing last week (after saying it they might go that route back in December), the euro strengthened. Many have argued that that the ECB lacked […]
Read more...I will be going to a memorial service and remembrance tomorrow, which will eat up a lot of my day tomorrow, and may also lead me to be light on posts tonight. Apologies in advance. I am hoping readers can give me some help here. I have been asking for months (I am not exaggerating) […]
Read more...Fossil hints at fuzzy dinosaurs BBC Lower air pollution equals longer life Blorge QE and the Bond Market John Jansen AIG versus America Bruce Krasting At A.I.G., the Brand Is Tarnished New York Times No Rational Explanation for the Post-EIA Reaction Stephen Schork (hat tip reader Michael) Why lingerie is wearing well in recession Financial […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal tonight, in “As It Starts Programs, Fed Weighs How to Stop Them,” broaches the touchy subject of how Federal Reserve unwinds all the “support lending” initiatives it has underway and is on the verge of launching. In general, this piece is more wary of party line than the typical WSJ offering, […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. I want to follow-up on my last post, the Mother of all stealth scams?. In that post, I argued that the AIG bonus bonanza and the upcoming bank bailouts are distracting people from the bigger problem coming down the road, namely, the bailouts of public and private […]
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