October 2009

Here’s the joke of the day via Steve Keen: Ten reasons the economy is so bad (I suggest this as a top ten for David Letterman?): #10: I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. #9: I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid…

Marshall Auerback here with a few thoughts on employment policy and the limit to government spending in a fiat currency regime. The Detroit story Edward just posted illustrates that we should start by eliminating the notion that society…

Jobless claims were reported as 521,000 on a seasonally-adjusted (SA) basis for the week ended October 3. This is the lowest reported figure for initial claims since January 3. The data came in lower than expectations and was matched by a…

The banks have been the ones benefitting most from free money via the Federal Government and U.S. taxpayers.  Given 9.8% base unemployment and 17.0% comprehensive unemployment, it is a bit galling for ordinary Americans that these same…

A friend sent me the following article from USA Today: The U.S. taxpayers' investments in smaller banks are increasingly at risk. In a sign that more banks are under great pressure from the recession, 34 financial institutions did…

Hypo Needs an Extra $10.2 Billion to Survive - WSJ.com "German real-estate financier Hypo Real Estate Holding AG needs an additional €7 billion ($10.2 billion) in capital from the German government to stay afloat and won't…

The Federal Reserve has just released the most recent data on consumer credit. The data show outstanding consumer credit falling to $2.47 trillion in August from a December 2008 peak of $2.59 trillion – on a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA)…

In my last post, I presented you with a bunch of data on debt levels broken down by sector of the economy (see “A brief look at the Asset-Based Economy at economic turns”).  I found it interesting that a secular pattern seemed to be at…

This morning I again wanted to challenge my somewhat bullish medium-term outlook but bearish longer-term view on the US economy – this time by looking at the data on debt. What follows is going to be a very numbers-heavy post.  So, I…

The Alignment of Asset Reflation and a Collapsed Economy | Gregor.us "there is no macroeconomic recovery occurring in the United States. What’s unfolding currently is snap-back from last year’s crash, which led us to the bottom of…