October 2008

Last week, I wrote a cheeky little post called "The Panic is over," in which I argued that the Panic phase of this crisis would ebb and the more chronic problems of excessive debt, leverage and recession would move center stage. Of course,…

So, I am back in the saddle after a great weekend in Palm Beach. And three days almost entirely away from Newspapers, Televisions, Telephones, and Computers is a very good thing to clear the head. (Although I did happen to catch Sarah…

The United States had been living beyond its means for a very long time before the credit crisis finally hit. The truth of the matter is that U.S. monetary and fiscal policy rewarded risk-taking and leverage at the expense of prudence and…

I love Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's CEO. He really tells it like it is. At last quarter's earnings call, he called a spade a spade and said "prime looks terrible" in reference to prime mortgage loans. This quarter his quote is even…

Oil has traded as low as $68.57 today, its lowest since August 2007. Gold is down $40 to below $800 an ounce. And all other commodity prices are getting pummeled. Now, I certainly foresaw some major declines in commodity prices as a major…

I want to spread the love today, so I am highlighting some of the posts of my fellow bloggers out on the Internet. Most of us have noted that the economic data coming out recently really confirms the fact that we're in recession. What…

Recently, the U.S. Treasury forced government capital injections onto nine U.S. financial institutions (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Wachovia, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley). While…

The U.S. industrial production numbers for September came out at 9:15ET this morning and they were very weak. However, it should be noted that the numbers were very distorted by lost production due to two hurricanes. Nevertheless,…

CNBC and other media sources are reporting that a number of hedge funds are collapsing under the weight of poor performance and massive fund redemption. Given the market volatility in credit, sick, bond and currency markets, it was only a…

Inflation was unchanged from the previous month in September, bringing the annual rate of inflation down to 4.9%. While the inflation rate is still elevated, the drop in oil and commodity prices combined with lower consumer spending is…