April 2009

Over the next two weeks I will be traveling and will have a pretty sparse and sporadic posting schedule. Next week is Mexico and then the week after is Germany. I am definitely looking to post but it probably will not be in the quantity…

We should consider Spain one of the four original bubble markets where residential property markets soared to ridiculous levels during the housing bubble.  The bubble has now popped and those countries, the U.K., the U.S., Ireland and…

First Spain, now Switzerland: Consumer prices in March were down 0.4% from a year ago, the Federal Statistics Office said, a 50-year low. The country has been close to deflation all year, with inflation having fallen from a peak of 3.1%…

I have just finished looking at the latest employment situation report and there is absolutely no good news there. This report is miles apart from the jobless claims data I reviewed yesterday and does not cofirm we are anywhere close to a…

Because I received a message via e-mail that my previous post on mark-to-market was misleading, I thought I would clarify what is happening with FAS 157 and provide some good links. The long and short of the rule is it gives more…

M2M Change = Time to buy banks? - FT Alphaville Recession Hits Social Security Increases “The banks” versus “some banks” - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com Medvedev Renews Call for Alternatives to Dollar - Real Time Economics - WSJ…

Update 31 Mar 2009: I am re-posting this post about unemployment figures from November 2008 because I think it relevant. The next unemployment number is coming out on Friday and I expect a large number. If you read this analysis, you can…

House prices increased in March in the U.K. according to Nationwide Building Society. Below is what Nationwide's Chief Economist Fionnuala Earley had to say about this surprise good news: “Spring brought a surprise bounce to house prices…

Tomorrow, we all await the unemployment number with anticipation.  In all likelihood, it is going to be a nasty number edging us ever closer to the 9.0% I once saw as a sort of upper range number for 2009. Meanwhile, jobless claims for…

This comes via Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman and is an even-handed review of what just happened: As widely expected FASB modified fair value accounting rules. The key seems to be for assets for which there is not a market. The…