Economy

CNBC says that Wall Street bonuses will likely be down this year as much as 20% across the board. Take a look.

The results from this past Thanksgiving weekend retail shopping blitz are in and consumer spending at real brick-and-mortar stores is barely up from a year ago. Henry Blodget and Aaron Task discuss what these numbers tell us.

Along with the EU and IMF we can be in no doubt: the reform programme evidently is on track. The only issue which seems to divide everyone – and especially those office-bound Fund employees from their more financially savvy…

The US economy grew at 1.9% for the last decade, the slowest since the 1930s. Given that government spending is going to go down, unemployment is going to take some time to get under control; and with the whole developed world in a mess, it…

A lot of other cool graphics from Spiegel, including debt and deficits throughout Europe.. See sources at the bottom for more (like when periphery bonds come due, Italy included).

This chart from Spiegel gives you a sense of the magnitude of the deficit reductions that must be accomplished in order to get the European periphery under the Maastricht 3% hurdle.   Source: Spiegel

by Win Thin Hungary is perhaps taking a more obvious approach to influencing monetary policy than Brazil, as ruling Fidesz party has reportedly submitted an amendment to the Central Bank Act that would give the cabinet sole control of…

by Win Thin Details of Ireland’s four-year budget plan are emerging and it contains the expected mix of spending cuts and tax hikes that is needed to get IMF/EU aid.  Ireland did not bow to outside pressure to hike the corporate tax…

Dan Alpert, managing partner at Westwood Capital, thinks that banks are under-reserving and that this will come back to haunt them when house prices fall in "the final leg down" of the housing crisis.  That is the right view…

by Annaly Capital Management The title of this piece is strange but true. The FDIC released its Quarterly Banking Profile for the 3rd quarter of 2010 this morning, trumpeting $14.5 billion in profits (up from only $2 billion in the year…