October 2008

The Senate has now passed the bailout bill Economic Patriot Act that the Bush Administration had a heavy hand in crafting. This bill, while better than nothing, is unlikely to alleviate for long the acute problems the financial markets are…

Hansruedi Ramsauer is one of the foremost German-language finance bloggers, writing over at the Swiss site Zeitenwende. In a recent post, he draws attention to the dire state of Swiss banking and calls on Swiss politicians to act now to…

The numbers on auto sales were unbelievably bad for September -- Ford down 34%. Honda down 24%, Toyota down 32%, Nissan down 37%. Amazingly, G.M. was at the head of the pack with sales down only 16 percent. (I guess those Escalade Hybrids…

Warren Buffett is all over the place these days. He was busy investing at Constellation Energy and Goldman Sachs. Now, he's investing at GE -- $3 billion at that. Judging by his market timing approach, it does seem assets are cheap…

The ISM Manufacturing survey, a widely-followed gauge of manufacturing activity in the United States, plunged in September from a near-recession reading of 49.9 in August to the deep recessionary level of 43.5. This shockingly steep fall…

For a few months now, I have been wondering where all the hedge fund fallout from global market turmoil was hiding. Now it seems that the turmoil in the hedge fund world is becoming more apparent -- hedge funds are imploding left and right…

The FDIC has a chronology of the Savings and Loan crisis on its website. I think they do a pretty good job of highlighting all the key points without slanting things for political purposes. See the link at the end of the post for the…

Yesterday, Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Business at New York University and most prescient prognosticator of the bubble, gave an interview to Bloomberg Radio. This is one of the most comprehensive interviews I have heard him give. It is…

The next time you hear someone say that things are worse than the Great Depression now, do me a favor and smack them upside the head for me, please. This is the kind of nonsense you hear nowadays and we need to dispel these myths right…

In her interview with Sarah Palin, Katie Couric asked the vice-presidential candidate what newspapers she reads to get current on world affairs. Palin's response was: "ALL of them." Take a look at the video below.Before the last week or…