January 2009

Bill Gross, the founder of PIMCO and manager of the world's largest bond fund, has just released his most recent Economic Outlook. In it, he takes a tack regarding the fix to the present turmoil in the markets with which I disagree.…

Seasonal adjustments for jobless claims are wearing off, but the uptick in claims remains. U.S. Jobless claims for the week ended January 24th came in at 588,000, up slightly from the previous week. Meanwhile, continuing claims reached a…

Bloomberg has a good interview from the World Economic Forum at Davos with Nouriel Roubini and Robert Shiller on the credit crisis and banking industry. The video is below. Enjoy.

Smarting from Tim Geithner's comments about China manipulating, its currency, the Chinese have retaliated with a condemnation of U.S. economic policy in the harshest of terms. At the World Economic Forum, Chinese Premier Wen went on the…

Here are some worthwhile contributions from the econblgger world I think you should definitely read.

In November, the U.S. federal agencies which oversee the banking system proposed new guidelines for real estate appraisals. One would imagine that these guidelines would be in keeping with the new more stringent regulatory frame of mind…

A few months ago, the Germans were very resistant to the notion that Germany would also suffer greatly in this global downturn. Yet, as the months have past, it has become increasingly apparent that exports from Germany and retail spending…

Animal Spirits Depend on Trust - Robert Shiller, Wall Street Journal Geithner enlists lobbyist as top aide - Jeanne Cummings - Politico.com (Hat tip Marshall) Argentina’s B- Rating Affirmed by Standard & Poor’s Ratings - Bloomberg.com…

In case you missed it, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have cost taxpayers tens of billions to date. The bill is still rising, however, as the two companies are looking for $50 billion more to avoid technical insolvency. Then there is…

I have yet to read what the media has reported on the new Case-Shiller Housing Index numbers for November 2008. However, I have crunched the numbers and they do not look very good. For the Composite-20 list of cities, the index is down…