Economy

You will never hear this term again on Credit Writedowns – not from me, not from Marshall or anywhere else.  I am sick of hearing this phrase and am banning it for good – hoping it goes away and dies a gruesome and painful death.…

Below is the opening text to the U.S. government’s press release on the revised GDP numbers from the last quarter.  I have highlighted the most relevant parts in bold.  Overall, these revisions are not significant.  The main…

I have had a number of posts on mark-to-market accounting in the recent past.  Most recently, the posts have suggested that accounting is going to be favourable to banks and their quest to present a well-capitalized face to the world (see…

This is the assessment of den Danske Bank as reported by Edward Hugh.  The last time I mentioned the Baltics was on May 12th in my post “A bearish view on Eastern Europe.”  I ended saying the Scandinavian banks’ exposure to the Baltics is…

If you thought jobless claims would fall off rapidly after a peak was made, you were mistaken because we seem to be in a holding pattern above 600,000.  The weekly report for unemployment insurance claims in the U.S. showed 623,000 filing a…

Basically, Faber believes a rising tide of quantitative easing is going to buoy stock markets globally and the global economy (at least for the medium-term). However, later in that same interview, Faber makes his most quotable statement…

In the wake of the huge consumer confidence number that caused U.S. markets to rally yesterday, Marc Faber is still singing from the same songbook that I am: delayed end to the recession and a weak recovery. See the video below. The…

On the face of it, Nationwide’s earnings report looks extremely good: 15% Tier 1 Capital, Pre-tax profit of nearly £400 million.  Given this financial institution’s leverage to the residential housing market, their results stand in…

Earlier today I posted an article about how accounting was favourable to banks in that it could help them weather the storm and appear well-capitalized until a recovery is underway.  Afterwards, a buoyant economy would increase…

This is the conclusion that Wachovia Chief Economist Mark Vitner draws from the very bullish consumer confidence number we have just seen.  To fill you in on the details, the Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index leapt…