August 2008

US Jobless claims came out again today as they do every Thursday at 8.30AM. The numbers were not good, and give a clear indication of why the Fed will not cut rates in the face of 5.6% inflation. Initial claims came in at 450,000, moving…

The U.S. inflation figures came out and they were worse than expected, pushing the annual inflation rate up to 5.6%. This is the highest inflation rate since 1991. Nevertheless, most economists greeted the rise, fueled by a 30% increase…

This from BloombergThe French economy, the euro- region's second largest, contracted in the second quarter for the first time in five years as exports declined and companies cut investments. Gross domestic product fell 0.3…

The key story today is pretty downbeat. It shows a global recession taking form. In the global recession section below are a number of stories from different newspapers I get in my RSS feeds from around the world. All of them are…

Sterling has dropped 10 days on the trot, the most in 37 years. What does that tell us? Well, it tells me that people think the BoE will be cutting rates at some point soon. The Pound was over $2.10 in October 2007. Now it trades for…

It's pretty much official now: Europe is in recession. As I predicted late last month, the Eurozone has hit stall speed with Germany now reporting a fall in GDP for the second quarter.The German economy, Europe's largest, contracted for the…

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 $501 Billion to date. That is on the…

Late last month, I made a big to-do about the Baltics becoming the next Argentina. Well, part of that mess is unraveling as we speak. Estonia is in recession and Latvia is headed for recession.Read my translation of a Dagens Nyheter article…

Yesterday I pointed out that today's global banking crisis has some historical precedents worthy of comparison. In particular, I looked at the Japanese bailout schemes from their housing bubble to see if there was anything there to learn.…

RecessionJapanese economy shrinking - BBC NewsU.S. retail sales dip in July - BBC NewsUK unemployment rise fastest since 1992 - GuardianForsaking Waitrose for Aldi - Times OnlineEuropean Industrial Output Stalled in June After Slump in May…