October 2009

I am listening to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner answer questions before the House Financial Services Committee and he seems to be talking the talk, but his Administration is not walking the walk.  The bill he is aggressively…

This comes via the FT: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday decided to drop the widely used West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a serious blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange. The decision by…

China has sent yet another public signal that it is unhappy with the U.S. and its trade policy by prepping an investigation into alleged illegal auto subsidies by the U.S. government.  The timing of this announcement puts a spotlight…

That’s what we seem to be expecting based on the huge uptick in equities since March. While stock markets have long since moved it up a gear, the employment market is stuck in neutral. The latest seasonally-adjusted jobless claims numbers…

While a positive number was expected, let’s wait to crunch the numbers before we pop the cork on the Moet – the price index was only 0.8% versus an expected 1.4%. So I will want to see what is happening with nominal GDP.  I also want…

And you thought the bailouts were over and market discipline might be restored.  Not a chance – the bailouts will continue, come hell or high water. The latest demonstration of this is GMAC, where the government will now be majority…

This is a post I wrote in response to an ongoing debate about financial crises, credit revulsion and deficit spending over at Naked Capitallism. See the four links in the first paragraph for the precursor articles. DoctoRx, Rob Parenteau…

Finance and Politics All Debt is Not Created Equal: Government Debt is NOT the Same as Private Debt - Marshall Auerback Must-read Why rich college kids can sell dope and you can't - Denver News I have a slightly different take…

Former Morgan Stanley economist Andy Xie joins other famed prognosticators like Nouriel Roubini in worrying about an incipient asset bubble. The Rosetta Stone Advisors board member sees the huge increase in money supply created by central…

The Norwegian central bank has hiked rates 25 basis points, making it the third central bank and first European central bank to do so since the global recovery process started. The Financial Times says: Norway’s central bank increased…