March 2009

Below are the just-released details on the U.S. Treasury Public Private Partnership Investment Program. I will have commentary shortly in a separate post. However, before I do, I am posting the details here for your reference.

Toxic assets plan is big White House test - FT.com US Treasury toxic asset plan: factbox - Telegraph MidEast fund takes 9% stake in Daimler - FT.com AIG starts makeover, changes sign at NY office - Reuters It's time to give up…

From the Wall Street Journal: In the latest dramatic move by federal authorities to prop up the nation's banking system, regulators late Friday seized control of the two largest wholesale credit unions in the U.S. after finding that…

You may have seen Ed's post "Gillian Tett: Washington is talking to Swedes about banking crisis solutions" a week back about how the U.S. government was getting ready to talk to Swedish officials regarding the banking crisis. This is a…

You probably saw this one already, but a pair of suspected narcotics traffickers threw gads of money from their car window while being pursued by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in a car chase in San Diego. Basically, it was free money…

Here are the main links. Others can be found in the news feed (also available via RSS). Enjoy. No Return to Normal - James K. Galbraith A Sign of the Times: A.I.G. Sues Countrywide - Deal Book Mexico Treasury Seeks Measure…

If you have noticed, Pakistan is in a real state of crisis right now. Given the fact that this country is both unstable and possesses nuclear weapons courtesy of A. Q. Khan, it stands to reason that everyone should be interested. The fact…

As understandable as the Congressional response to the AIG bonuses was, the reality is that this does create a number of disturbing precedents. We have a stupid Congress mindlessly lashing out to compensate for its own complicity in…

This analysis comes via Brown Brothers Harriman (I have bolded a few lines): Mexico's central bank is widely expected to cut its overnight rate by 25 bp today. That would bring it to 7.25%. Last month it delivered a 25 bp rate cut too.…

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor released its Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report. I see the data as mostly good. The headline seasonally-adjusted numbers were 646,000 initial claims and 5.47 million continuing claims, both…