Author

Edward Harrison 7783 posts 575 comments

Edward Harrison is a senior Editor at Bloomberg. He is also the founder of Credit Writedowns newsletter, a former career diplomat, investment banker and technology executive with over twenty five years of business experience. He speaks six languages and reads another five, skills he uses to provide a more global perspective. Edward holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

Economy

Comprehensive unemployment rate is 17.5%

Edward Harrison Nov 6, 2009

The employment market is pretty grim. We’re talking a double digit unemployment rate – and that’s just the base rate. The comprehensive unemployment rate is now 17.5% in the US. This is a fact not lost on our politicians. Today,…

Economy

10.2% unemployment, 190,000 jobs lost

Edward Harrison Nov 6, 2009

Average weekly hours a record low of 33.0. Stock futures now down. The household survey says we have lost 1.3 million jobs in three months. 17.5% U-6 unemployment. Median duration of unemployment is now 18.7 weeks from 15.4 just 3 months…

Economy

The wildly optimistic view of Treasury’s handling of the crisis

Edward Harrison Nov 5, 2009

I was reading Kid Dynamite's account of the recent Treasury - Finance Blogger meeting after having read a bunch of others (see them all in Abnormal Returns’ Nov 4th links). And I was struck by his characterization of the thinking at…

Political Economy

Economic nationalism and GM’s decision to keep Opel and Vauxhall

Edward Harrison Nov 5, 2009

I have been reading press accounts of the GM decision to back out of the Opel/Vauxhall sale to the Magna/Sberbank consortium from various countries. There are a lot of different perspectives on this event in the U.S., Belgium, Spain,…

Economy

Better last claims report before employment number

Edward Harrison Nov 5, 2009

The Department of Labor data released this morning indicated that 512,000 people filed initial claims for unemployment insurance in the latest week. This is down 20,000 from last week and marks the last data points we are to get on…

News

News from around the web: 2009-11-05

Edward Harrison Nov 5, 2009

Be sure to see William Shatner’s poetic reading of Levi Johnston’s tweets below. Pretty funny. Buffett Revisits Hunting Ground for Survivors: Alice Schroeder - Bloomberg.com "Buffett isn’t as bullish as he sounds." Clever…

Business

Walt Mossberg reviews the Droid

Edward Harrison Nov 4, 2009

The Motorola Droid is the so-called iPhone killer. Is it the real deal? Mossberg seems to think so. See also: Motorola's Droid Is Smart Success for Verizon Users – Walt Mossberg, WSJ

Markets

The coming collapse of the municipal bond market

Edward Harrison Nov 4, 2009

Why aren’t more municipal bonds being downgraded by the ratings agencies Fitch, Moody’s and S&P? If you look at sovereign debt in revenue-constrained countries like Greece, Portugal or Ireland, the ratings agencies are issuing…

Monetary System

Fed to keep “exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.”

Edward Harrison Nov 4, 2009

That’s all you need to know. Source FOMC statement – Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

News

News from around the web: 2009-11-04

Edward Harrison Nov 4, 2009

I was interviewed on the BBC last night about the GM/Opel/Vauxhall deal. I am waiting for video before posting any more about it. My general feeling, however is GM’s backing out is being driven by reflation as GM no longer needs to…

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