Economy

This came in via the U.S. Department of Labor early this morning: In the week ending Feb. 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 473,000, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week's revised figure of…

Last summer, I heard from a source close to the Obama Administration that the public option was mostly a bargaining tool and that the Obama Administration would only use it in order to pass healthcare reform. Translation: the Obama…

Marshall Auerback warns that unchecked speculation and fraud are threatening the European Monetary Union. Marshall Auerback here with a post which I originally published at New Deal 2.0 Surprise, surprise: Wall Street tactics akin to the…

Source Banking Compensation – St. Louis Fed

I will be away all week, so I will have a number of guest contributions in that time. Here is a great one from John Mauldin, who I frequently publish.  At the bottom is a blurb on how to subscribe to his newsletter.  It is worth…

This is a post by Edward Hugh, who also blogs at Global Economy Matters. “If you don’t fully understand an instrument, don’t buy it.” To the above advice from Emilio Botín, Executive Chairman of Spain’s Grupo Santander, I would simply…

Edward Hugh here. Well, I may say there were no surprises, but in fact the Greek economy contracted more than many observers expected in the fourth quarter, while downward revisions to the rest of 2009 converted the present recession into…

Claus Vistesen here with a first post on Credit Writedowns. GDP releases are, by their very nature, lagging indicators and thus do not tell us a whole lot about the current momentum in an economy. Moreover, the immediate focus of attention…

Well, it isn’t only my German economy Q4 call, or my Japanese economy one which look OK right now, this Italian one also now seems very much to the point. In fact, as I suspected it might, the Italian economy went back into contraction…

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared a “fiscal emergency” for the state of New Jersey today, announcing massive cuts to schools and hospitals.  The issue is less the budget for this year, which itself shows a deficit of $2.2…