June 2008

As the Euro celebrates its tenth anniversary, Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, says:"The question is whether the eurozone countries and their citizens have cause to celebrate. The answer is uncertain, given the zone’s…

It looks like the BofA-Countrywide deal is still on. In fact, BofA is making room for some of the Countrywide executives in its own executive suite. I reckon we will look back on this deal as a very bad call by BofA.Bank of America Corp.…

If you thought it was bad in the US, you need to read the British press. I subscribe to a number of RSS feeds for UK newspapers. I was rummaging tbough the Telegraph's news feed and I was surprised at how gloomy the mood is in the UK.…

Amity Shlaes has a good column over at Bloomberg News. Her post today is about the likely rise in taxes we are going to see in 2009 and beyond. She admonishes the Democrats for being overly complex when it comes to taxes. She says:"The…

This is an important question, because our central banks are the ones behind the rise in inflation, not OPEC, oil companies, or greedy corporations. If one must point the finger, point it at central bankers. "Inflation is always and…

You know, the Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3 for some strange reason back on 23 Mar 2006.At the time, they said the following:M3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already…

I have been reading the Spanish press a lot recently to see what is happening in the Spanish property market. On the one hand, the country is transfixed over a strike by truck drivers (link in Spanish) that has left Spain's major cities…

After stars like Evander Holyfield and Jose Canseco defaulted on their mortgages, who is immune: lawmakers? Think again. The Charlotte Observer has a story out today reporting that Julia Boseman, a North Carolina State Senator has fallen…

McClatchy has an article out today showing that the credit crunch is hitting all sorts of consumer credit now. The crisis that began as one 'contained' to subprime, now has branched out into auto loans, credit card debt, student loans,…

This is what the recently released retail sales data look like over a longer time-frame.