2008

Deutsche Bank has sold three New York skyscrapers back to the Macklowe group at a discount of 20-30% reports the Wall Street Journal. This could be a watershed moment in the U.S. commercial real estate (CRE)sector. CRE is a sector that is…

The UK is in the throes of the worst of the mortgage meltdown. Financial shares are tumbling. Home builders face collapse. Many top names in British housing and banking have been caught out and are getting a deserved swift kick: Northern…

In April, I wondered aloud where HBOS was in this crisis in a post called "Where's HBOS?". Now, we know they are not immune to the problems infecting global finance.The Guardian has reported on the difficulty HBOS is having raising money…

As the Euro celebrates its tenth anniversary, Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, says:"The question is whether the eurozone countries and their citizens have cause to celebrate. The answer is uncertain, given the zone’s…

It looks like the BofA-Countrywide deal is still on. In fact, BofA is making room for some of the Countrywide executives in its own executive suite. I reckon we will look back on this deal as a very bad call by BofA.Bank of America Corp.…

If you thought it was bad in the US, you need to read the British press. I subscribe to a number of RSS feeds for UK newspapers. I was rummaging tbough the Telegraph's news feed and I was surprised at how gloomy the mood is in the UK.…

Amity Shlaes has a good column over at Bloomberg News. Her post today is about the likely rise in taxes we are going to see in 2009 and beyond. She admonishes the Democrats for being overly complex when it comes to taxes. She says:"The…

This is an important question, because our central banks are the ones behind the rise in inflation, not OPEC, oil companies, or greedy corporations. If one must point the finger, point it at central bankers. "Inflation is always and…

You know, the Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3 for some strange reason back on 23 Mar 2006.At the time, they said the following:M3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already…

I have been reading the Spanish press a lot recently to see what is happening in the Spanish property market. On the one hand, the country is transfixed over a strike by truck drivers (link in Spanish) that has left Spain's major cities…