Economy

Now, Bill Gross, the Bond King, knows that bonds go up in price when bad economic data comes out.  So, leaving aside the desire to talk one’s own book, I think Gross makes a number of good points on CNBC about the unemployment data…

Here is how the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the situation. THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JUNE 2009 Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in June (-467,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 percent,…

Credit in Spain is contracting at an unprecedented rate, down 33% in the first quarter as Spain faces a housing bust and near 20% unemployment. Below is my translation of part of a Spanish-language article explaining the situation.…

The June 2009 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® came out today and we saw yet another rise in the PMI to 44.8.  While equity markets in the U.S. seemed pretty pleased that the numbers continue to go up, I found this report a bit…

FT Alphaville is reporting that the credit rating agency Fitch puts credit card losses at 10.4% of outstanding loans.  This is a record.  Bad news if you are a credit card company.  So, what does one do in that…

This is effectively bankruptcy. Bloomberg reports. California is poised to begin its new fiscal year tomorrow without a plan in place to close a $24 billion deficit as the state prepares to conserve cash by issuing IOUs to vendors who are…

This past weekend I saw the film Food Inc, which I recommend highly to anyone looking to see how deregulation has affected industries other than finance.  While the subject of Food Inc was how the industrialization of food policy in…

Apparently, the U.S. auto industry is working off a significant backlog of inventory because I have been hearing that pretty much everyone in North America is planning to ramp up production for the third quarter.  This is prima facie…

Late last year, I predicted that China, as a major exporter to the West, would feel a huge impact from the meltdown in the global economy, taking it’s growth rate down to 2% (See Top ten predictions for the 2009 global economy). Forgetting…

Here’s another $25 billion giveaway to AIG.  Notice that AIG gets the upside over $25 billion. Does this ever stop?  Bloomberg reports. American International Group Inc., the insurer bailed out by the U.S. government, agreed…