The British don’t do shrill, but Wolf today is as close as you will ever find on the pages of the Financial Times. And the telling sign that Wolf is borderline unhinged is (aside from mentioning his fury) that his article has less of a clear structure than his comments usually do. But he nevertheless […]
Read more...Horses tamed earlier than thought BBC RailCorp targets rogue iPhone app ZDNet Australia ‘Undesirable’ evolution can be reversed in fish, Stony Brook University scientists show ScienceCodex Oil Funds Can’t Buy Fannie Bonds Moscow Times (hat tip reader Nivethan) and Russia says no to the Agencies …Brad Setser Bill Seeks $500 Billion for FDIC Fund Wall […]
Read more...Bionic eye gives blind man sight BBC Lighting Up the Darkness in Rural Africa Eric Taub German industrial orders in free fall Eurointelligence Martin Feldstein and Simon Johnson on the U.S.’s Lost Decade Paul Kedrosky Rethinking subsidized finance Steve Waldman If this becomes Obama’s war, it will poison his presidency Seumas Milne, Guardian China’s Luxury […]
Read more...Reader Nivethan pointed to a Bloomberg story, “China Says 8% Growth Within Reach Using $585 Billion Stimulus.” This may be a tad more significant than it appears (I also looked at Xinhua, but got the singular, and probably completely unfair impression that Wen’s speech to the party Congress was of the “give everyone at least […]
Read more...The Treasury today announced its so-called “Making Homes Affordable Program”. I am clearly an old fart. The fact that the Treasury bothered to have a logo created for the program (do consumers and servicers really need brand imaging when having money shoved at them?) gives me more than a little pause. I will nevertheless try […]
Read more...As dramatic as the supposed revelation that the FDIC may need to go hat in hand to Congress for more dough, this is hardly a surprise. The FDIC also needed to appeal for additional funds in the savings and loan crisis, and our current mess dwarfs that one. From Bloomberg: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman […]
Read more...Climate ‘hitting Europe’s birds’ BBC America’s Loss is the World’s Gain: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part 4 Vivek Wadhwa. AnnaLee Saxenian. Richard B. Freeman, and Gary Gereffi, SSRN. On the reversal of the brain drain. China’s jumbo rocket “carrying capacity factor” world’s second largest: expert Xinhua Geithner ducks a big question Bruce Krasting Merrill’s $10 […]
Read more...When trade started falling off in the later half of last year, this blog commented from time to time that the scarcity of trade finance, particularly letters of credit, was playing a meaningful role. That line of thinking was sometimes met with skepticism. Trade related funding has gotten even more scarce and costly, to the […]
Read more...One of the things I find truly remarkable is the degree to which Americans (or at least commentary in pretty much all American media) have bought into certain ideological constructs as if they were gospel truth. Now in fact, most of us operate from ideologies of various sorts. For instance, reasonable people can differ on […]
Read more...Faithful readers, I know the blog has become more polemic in tone over the last few months. We are in the stage of the cycle, as Warren Buffet put it, the tide has gone out and we are seeing who isn’t wearing a swimming suit. Worse, as the powers that be are desperately throwing funds […]
Read more...Lousy economic conditions are leading many consumers to postpone car purchases. Lower levels of industry sales will increase the bleeding at GM and Chrysler. One factor I have not seen mentioned much in any of the bailout discussions is whether we might see a reversal of the long-term trend of an increasing number of cars […]
Read more...Is this the world’s ugliest cat? BBC. He appears to be well loved regardless. Why Doctors Hate Science Sharon Begley, Newsweek The Limits of a “3 Minute Rahm” in Obama’s Kitchen Cabinet Steve Clemons, Washington Note (hat tip reader Krishna). Suggests that Obama is falling into the same bad decision making process that felled Bush […]
Read more...As many readers may know, when credit default swaps trade on an “upfront” basis, meaning a premium has to be paid immediately for the contract to be effective, when the risk of default is perceived to be high. Also note in this case that the upfront payment applies to GE Capital, which is NOT the […]
Read more...I had refrained from commenting much on the latest iteration of retrading AIG’s deal with Uncle Sam, save to observe that each of its predecessors had resulted in an arrangement more favorable to AIG, and I saw no reason to assume this time would be any different. One of the features of this revamp was […]
Read more...A New York Times article tonight, “U.S. Likely to Keep the Reins on Fannie and Freddie“, raises the specter that the mortgage giants may never return to private form. Frankly, we think that is not entirely a bad thing. Fannie and Freddie were originally agencies of the US government and were (sort of) spun out […]
Read more...