February 2011

By William K. Black I write to contrast four recent stories about Countrywide. Here are their headlines and brief synopses provided in the initial paragraphs of the stories. U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo…

By Claus Vistesen As the debate between the inflationistas and deflationistas appears about to rev up again, I thought that I would try to put pen to virtual paper and sketch out my thoughts on the matter. The specific catalyst for…

By Win Thin Colombia surprised markets with a 25 bp hike to 3.25% late Friday, and marks the first hike of the tightening cycle as the central bank tries to get back ahead of the inflation curve. The deciding factor behind the hike was…

By Rick Bookstaber In a recent post I laid the blame for the inadequacies of neoclassical economics and behavioral economics on the failure to take into account human context. By context I mean that humans make decisions that are colored…

This is just a brief update regarding changes at Credit Writedowns. First, you may have noticed that my posting schedule has slowed down a decent amount. I have a few things on my plate and haven't been able to devote as much time to…

The King's Speech was last night's big winner at the Oscar's, taking in Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Actor. I saw the film and thought it was a brilliant piece of cinema – very uplifting.  Below is a clip from the film and a…

I had to post this because I really don't know what to say about it.

By Marc Chandler The Swedish krona is surging today. Hawkish central bank comments have offset disappointing retail sales figures and there is some talk of some month-end related demand. The euro recorded multi-year lows against the…

Today's release on U.S. Personal Income and Outlays from January 2011 was a nice change of pace from the worries that food and commodity price inflation have caused over the past month. We saw personal income up an annualized $133 billion…

This year's winner for Best Documentary is "Inside Job' by Charles Ferguson. In accepting his Oscar, Ferguson said: "Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by…