November 2008

James Montier, a market guru usually known as a permabear has turned bullish of late. In keeping with my bullish sentiments, I have posted his thoughts below according to Bloomberg News. That said, I should always qualify my…

Willem Buiter has a very useful and provocative blog at the Financial Times website called Mavercon.  The Dutch-born former Bank of England MPC member is not afraid to take policy makers to task or call a spade a spade. In his latest post…

The S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price Indices were released yesterday. Unfortunately, I was away all day and could not post. The indices showed a further decline in home prices in the United States through September 2008 (the data most…

The renowned money manager Jeremy Grantham has had his first television interview ever with Consuelo Mack on Mack's program WealthTrack. Below is the video from that interview. Mack has promised to make a longer video available to those…

Politics As the time for Barack Obama to take office moves ever closer, his policy team is coming into view. Obama has appointed a slew of economic advisors including Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and Paul Volcker. In addition, he looks to…

When a bank with $2.2 trillion in assets is saved from potential ruin, it is big news. So, as you can imagine, every one and his brother has a take on what went wrong at Citigroup and whether the solution to 'fix' Citi was the right one.…

I have come down on the side of sweeping change when it comes to the banking system in the United States. Basically, I fear a further downward spiral due to the fear and panic that the banking crisis has unleashed. In my view, this…

It looks like we have a solution to Citi's crisis. The U.S. Government agreed to bailout Citigroup, backing $306 billion of debt in exchange for preferred equity and warrants plus a host of other details I will enumerate below. On the whole…

Citigroup is in serious trouble. The storied institution with $2 trillion in assets has seen its shares collapse and its reputation is in tatters as it goes cap in hand to the U.S. government for a bailout. Indeed, a solution must be…

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism is reporting that Larry Summers is to be tapped to head Barack Obama's National Economic Counsel.  Summers had been considered for the Treasury position, one that looks likely to go to Tim Geithner, the head…