June 2008

Caroline Baum has a great column at Bloomberg News today about U.S. Dollar policy. The basic thrust of the column was about asking Ben Bernanke to put his money where his mouth is. The Fed can talk all it wants -- about the Dollar and…

Every week the U.S. Department of Labor puts out the previous week's jobless claims statistics through its Employment and Training Administration (Doleta). Analysts look at it to get a sense of how employment is being affected by the…

Canada has experienced a housing boom, not unlike many other English-speaking countries globally. According to the Globe and Mail, housing prices have doubled there nationally in the last 10 years. So, what are the prospects for Canadian…

From Bloomberg News in it's entirety. This is a HUGE story. This means that Ambac and MBIA will go bust, no doubt. And there will be significant writedowns in Q2 and Q3. Expect to see a major financial institution fail (one that's…

Housing wire has a very interesting piece out today, suggesting that the mortgage crisis in the U.S. has moved far beyond merely subprime and even Alt-A; Prime borrowers are now where the greatest increase in mortgage stress is being felt.…

Calculated Risk is reporting a huge decline in household wealth due to the deflating housing bubble."The Fed released the Q1 2008 Flow of Funds report today: Flow of Funds. The Fed report shows that household real estate assets decreased…

The Telegraph is reporting that "house prices are now suffering their sharpest annual drop in 15 years, according to the latest survey from Halifax."See story.Related storiesHouse prices: Should the Government intervene?, Telegraph, 05 Jun…

Caroline Baum, one of the best financial reporters out there, has a new column today about the Fed. I recommend it highly. The article is about a new book by Robert Auerbach, Professor at the University of Texas, Austin called "Deception…

Economists have a way of coming up with more ratios and statistics than you can shake a stick at. True to my profession, I have developed a long-term yardstick of market overvaluation and undervaluation. I have no short-hand for it yet so…

Mish over at the Global Economic Trend Analysis caught a story in the FT about the possibility of banks being forced to put $5 trillion back on their balance sheets.The FT article says:Accounting changes could force U.S. banks to take…