Japan has long had a two-tier economy: a robust export sector and a comatose domestic economy. With the yen at a high level and trade volumes generally falling, the export sector has gone spectacularly into reverse gear, taking overall growth with it. From Bloomberg: Japan’s economy shrank at an annual 12.7 percent pace last quarter, […]
Read more...Global warming ‘underestimated’ BBC Could ‘liquid wood’ replace plastic? Christian Science Monitor CBRC Official Says U.S. Bonds Not Only Option, China News Says Bloomberg Nationalize the Banks! We’re all Swedes Now Matthew Richardson and Nouriel Roubini, Washington Post Miami banker gives $60 million of his own to employees Miami Herald Do Androids Dream of Apple-Blackberry […]
Read more...We’ve commented from time to time that a possible financial flashpoint is countries that got themselves in the same fix as Iceland , of having a banking sector engaged in the generally risky practices that were standard form recently, and was outsized relative to the economy (Willem Buiter also points out that that precarious situation […]
Read more...In case you think my headline is too harsh, consider the one at Bloomberg: “Obama to Work on Executive Pay Limits After Industry Complaints.” So in case you were laboring under the delusion that widespread managerial failure among the nations’ top banks, to the point of being dependent on taxpayer provided drip-feeds among the nation’s […]
Read more...‘CO2 reduction treaties useless’ BBC Orange County Register: End of the Rainbow Knight Science Journalism Tracker (hat tip reader Krishna) Toyota Seeks To Shed U.S. Workers Forbes (hat tip reader Tim) Congressional Offices Don’t Have the Stimulus Bill, Lobbyists Do Washington Whispers (hat tip reader Dwight) and Democratic Senator Predicts None of His Colleagues ‘Will […]
Read more...I must confess to having read only a bit of economist Axel Leijonhufvud’s writings, but what I have seen, I have liked very much. Leijonhufvud’s current post at VoxEU does a very good job of looking at the economic mess the US is in and assesses policy options. It is a remarkably straightforward piece. Most […]
Read more...Last week. Bloomberg reported that Volcker, who many regard as the best asset on Obama’s economics team, is sorely underutilized: Paul Volcker has grown increasingly frustrated over delays in setting up the economic advisory group President Barack Obama picked the former Federal Reserve chairman to lead… Volcker, 81, blames Obama’s National Economic Council Director Lawrence […]
Read more...Reader Russell had wondered whether the attorney general of North Carolina might go after Bank of America over the difficult-to-rationalize bonuses paid to Merrill staff, given that the Charlotte bank had signed off on them (failing to inform and obtain consent Bank of America would have been grounds for terminating the deal). I had thought […]
Read more...Penguins in peril as food search turns into marathon Times Online Bleak forecast on fishery stocks BBC Australia’s catastrophic Summer – Update Econspeak. The significance of this note will probably be lost on some. Eucalyptus trees are full of oil and burn like torches. Industrial policy threw gas, or in this case oil, on the […]
Read more...Your humble blogger has said that rationalizing and recapitalizing the banking system is essential for recovery. Economists like Ben Bernanke attribute Japan’s failure to dig itself out of its hole to not being aggressive enough in terms of fiscal and monetary stimulus,. Yet Japan did a great deal on both fronts. The biggest difference between […]
Read more...It is risky indeed for someone like me, on the other side of the world, commenting on a country with spotty economic data (a function of size and maturity of its information gathering apparatus, as well as possible intent to put lipstick on pigs) to take issue with an emerging consensus. Nevertheless, I will stick […]
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Read more...‘Arctic unicorns’ in icy display BBC. I enjoyed this little video (hat tip reader Stephen V). Ballmer likens economy to depressions of 1837, 1873, and 1929 CNet (hat tip reader Peter) China on the brink Patrick Chovanec, Asia Times Nearly 700 at Merrill in Million-Dollar Club New York Times Damning verdict for ‘fragile’ WTI Financial […]
Read more...We are supposed to be impressed with the speed and scale of government action on the bank front. As reported in the New York Times: Nearly 100 federal banking regulators descended on Citigroup in New York on Wednesday morning. Dozens more fanned out through Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and other big banks across the […]
Read more...The title of this Telegraph article may strike some US readers as alarmist, and since one of the two authors is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a card carrying member of the uber-bear club, it may be easy to dismiss it. But that would be a mistake. I was in Austria in December, meeting with some local businessmen, […]
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