The Economist has its lead editorial and two articles (here and here) on the state of play in the economics discipline, given its failure to see the financial train wreck coming and its dismissal of those who raised early warning flags. I must confess I only got a few paragraphs into it before getting thoroughly […]
Read more...It simply amazes me that those who are cheerleading the seeming return of Wall Street to health overlook the extensive, hydra-headed subsidies they’ve received and continue to receive. The media has bought and is touting the line, “Hey, they (more accurately some) paid back the TARP, so what’s the beef?” Let us consider the other […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. I just read a CNBC story which fails to mention CNBC’s involvement in the apparently erroneous report that Nouriel Roubini has suddenly become more bullish. Is this omission justified? The controversy centers on statements Roubini made regarding the timing of a technical recovery in the United States. Yesterday, […]
Read more...Lordie, is the media incapable of doing anything more than writing up official remarks? This is the latest headline, the lead story on the Bloomberg home page right now: Dollar Gains as China Says ‘Not Aware’ of Reserve Currency Talk That is a very curious remark, given that the central bank, a mere week ago, […]
Read more...One way of shaping the news is the framing of stories. Readers are sending articles on a daily basis pointing to a bullish bias in quite a few stories. In most, it not blatant, which is why I don’t parse them, here, in that it would seem like overkill. But in fact the subtle spinning […]
Read more...Americans on average are more liberal than sterotypes about US attitudes would suggest. So why do most Americans, and more important their representatives, act as if the country is conservative-leaning? The cynical take is the most persuasive: while the numbers may be skewed to the left, the money is weighted to the right. With TV […]
Read more...Just as one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter, so to is a return to prudent lending practices now leading to “unintended consequences”, namely fewer loans being extended. The post-bubble spin-mongering continues. New lending standards now mandated by Freddie and Fannie as a result of a settlement between New York State and the mortgage giants […]
Read more...What is going on? We noted on June 12 that the World Bank has lowered its growth forecast for 2009 from a negative 1.7% to close to negative 3%. World Bank Group President announced this prior to the G8 meeting and stressed the global contraction would have particularly grim consequences for poor countries. Today we […]
Read more...Submitted by Knute Knutson: As I imagine many of your are, I’m an avid reader of Gillian Tett’s Financial Times columns, I therefore purchased her recent book, Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe, shortly after its release. Ms. […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. Marc Chandler, Global Head of Currency Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman has a good piece out today highlighting the differing economic policy agendas of the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India and China). In it he suggests CRIBS is a more appropriate moniker for the group as […]
Read more...I am beginning to feel as if I am being gaslighted. For those not familiar with the reference. Gas Light was a 1930s play in which a scheming husband keeps turning the gas lights in his house up and down, then keeps telling his wife that she is crazy when she comments on the changes. […]
Read more...The bits of evidence that provided the strongest support to green shoots backers have been the rise in stock prices and possible signs of slowing in job losses. However, the rally warrants considerable critical scrutiny. First. violent rallies are more characteristic of bear market head fakes than new bull markets. And this rally has featured […]
Read more...The Japanese have a wonderful expression that I will take some liberty in translating. They use it to signify when someone is trying to claim great distinctions among low levels of activity or achievement. The phrase is roughly “A height competition among peanuts.” Reader DoctoRx flagged this Bloomberg report as a Pangloss item. What is […]
Read more...I returned this week from giving a speech in Washington State to a very nice group of economists (the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference, if you must know). I sat in on some of the other presentations. One, on the challenges of measuring inflation, had speakers from the BLS and the BEA. The BLS presentation […]
Read more...Clusterstock has reported that the Telegraph is to restore the article that Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote about one Mark Patterson, a distressed investor who used TARP funding to acquire a bank in Michigan, then said not-so-nice things about the program at a conference in Qatar. He apparently then complained to the Telegraph which yanked the piece […]
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