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Browsing Category
Economy
Average initial jobless claims still stubbornly high
The U.S. Department of Labor confirmed that for yet another week average jobless claims remain in the 560-580K range where they have been for two months. Initial claims for the week ended Sep. 5 were down to 550,000, a decline of 26,000…
Delivering a brilliant healthcare speech
Tonight we saw a brilliant performance from Barack Obama. It was Obama at his best, using his command of the English language to inspire and connect on a grand stage as only few politicians can. For sceptics like myself, he surprised. For…
Lehman’s collapse: The money fund “ice-nine wasn’t noticed… at…
Bloomberg News is writing a very worthy series of retrospective articles on the financial panic of September 2008. I profiled the first one on Monday. The next in the series came out yesterday and it makes for riveting and…
Now watch this drive
I have been arguing for some time that Barack Obama made a crucial tactical error in bailing out the big banks early in his presidency. His actions have left him vulnerable to populist resentment. In my view, this weakens his…
U.S. has begun to drain liquidity
I just received notice that the FDIC Board has approved the phase out of the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) in a first clear sign that the U.S. Federal Government has started policy normalisation.
The FDIC Board today adopted…
The socialist back-to-school speech
While I have come down hard on some aspects of Barack Obama’s legislative agenda, I have not been painting him with a Hitler moustache or accusing him of socialism, that great evil practised only in cheese-loving France. So I was…
Refiners as proxy for demand: layoffs for first time at Valero
Refining margins have been absolutely decimated, especially for refiners of heavy, sour crude like Valero Energy (VLO) and Tesoro Petroleum (TSO). This is taking a toll on profits in the oil and gas sector, with both oil majors highly…
Bernstein: America “practically invites another catastrophe”
With the Lehman meltdown hitting its one-year anniversary soon, a lot of media outlets are looking back at the events that surrounded Lehman’s collapse. Bloomberg has a good article out that is a must-read piece. For me, the money quote of…
Unemployment rate to 9.7%, 216,000 jobs lost
The U.S. economy lost 216,000 jobs in August according to figures released by the Department of Labor. This brought the unemployment rate up to 9.7% from 9.4% in July. Despite the large rise in the headline unemployment rate (U-3),…
China’s savings habit
I want to highlight the good work of the BBC again. The last time I featured one of the BBC documentaries, it was about (conspicuous) consumption in China and the push to get Chinese citizens to spend more in order to support the economy. …