August 2008

Yesterday and overnight, there was a ton of news in Europe, in banking and in geopolitics. So, I am going to alter the format of the round-up slightly and give you a rundown with links mixed in.The long and short is that the banking sector…

A year into the crisis, it's time to let banks start to fend for themselves -- or at least let their shareholders do the heavy lifting. That's what the President of the Dutch Central Bank Nout Wellink had to say earlier today. Below is my…

Since June, bond yields have fallen to the point where the U.S. government is getting paid to borrow money right across the entire yield curve. The 10-year is 3.8%, while inflation in the U.S. is 5.6% . What gives? This is either a flight…

Below are the latest writedown stories from the web that I have seen. For the full timeline of news, visit my credit crisis timeline. Bloomberg recently updated their tally of writedowns to arrive at $503.8 Billion to date. That is on…

Oil surges above $120 as tensions rise - Fin 24 (A bit of a delayed reaction, if you asked me. Oil gapped way up $5 today. Huge move. Last I saw it was at $121)Lone Star Funds to take over IKB - BBC News (So I guess American buyout shops…

The Beijing Olympic games are supposed to be China's coming out cotillion. As the west struggles with deleveraging and recession, China wants to make a statement that it has arrived. The games have gone off remarkably well and most…

Back in May, I showed you a chart of Total U.S. Debt which demonstrated that the United States was an increasingly indebted country. This chart was for all domestic debt minus financials and it topped out at about 225% of GDP. Below is…

U.S. jobless claims were down 12,000 this week to 430,000. However, the 4-week average increased to 445,750 and is now 125,750 higher than a year ago. Over the past 4 or 5 weeks, claims have spiked up in part due to the extension of…

From where I sit, today was a complete disaster for U.S. finance. Fannie and Freddie imploded -- their shares quickly approach zero. Lehman admitted it is scared witless and has tried to line up foreign governments to bail it out. States…

Lehman Brothers is obviously desperate to avoid Bear Stearns' fate. The FT is reporting that Lehman held secret talks with foreign investors to sell up to 50% of the company. Previously, I thought one investor might be the Korea…