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

The GDP’s inflation metric is clearly bogus

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

Lately, it seems the U.S. economy is flat on its back, with companies going bankrupt left and right. Yet, government statistics say quite the opposite. In the second quarter, the U.S. economy supposedly grew 1.9% annualized q-o-q. Sounds…

Economy

GDP revisions are out

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

GDP stats came out for Q2. I'll get to that in a later post. We had 1.9% growth on the quarter, which was a decent lift from the stimulus package. But, what is really interesting is that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which…

Economy

Misleading jobless claims data

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

Jobless claims hit a 5-year high of 448K last week, leaving everyone under the impression that the employment numbers are deteriorating rapidly. However, the massive increase in jobless claims for the past week is very misleading because…

Markets

Commodity prices are dropping across the board

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

One reason I believe inflation pressures will slow going forward is that the global economy has already slowed enough to have a measurable impact on oil demand and all commodity prices across the board. As July comes to an end, the month…

Economy

Even Buffett hit by higher funding costs

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

Berkshire Hathaway, the company led by Warren Buffett, is offering a five-year debt deal for the highest spread over treasurys in its history. As Berkshire is a low-risk AAA company, this fact reinforces the magnitude of credit market…

Markets

UK house price falls are accelerating

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

Nationwide Building Society released its monthly house price index for the UK showing an annual rate of decline of 8.1%, the highest since UK house prices began falling last year. This suggests that UK house prices are accelerating through…

Economy

Deutsche Bank and HBOS hit by writedowns

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

The major European banks have gotten into the swing of things with their own reporting season. Today, Deutsche Bank and HBOS reported earnings.Deutsche Bank recorded a pre-tax profit of 642 millioneuros after writedowns of $3.6 billion due…

Economy

Record high in part-time work

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time because of weak business has swelled to more than 3.7 million — the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century…

News

News round-up: 31 Jul 2008

Edward Harrison Jul 31, 2008

Trade talks collapse frustrates Africa - Fin24 (Africa is the real loser here in a dispute between the EU, U.S. and China and India)India blamed for Doha collapse by trying to protect poor farmers - Times Online (The finger pointing…

Markets

The Homeownership Obsession

Edward Harrison Jul 30, 2008

Robert Samuelson has written an excellent piece describing how the U.S. has become obsessed with residential property to its detriment. The result has been over- and malinvestment in homes that will take years, if not decades to…

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