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Economy
U.S. CPI: Lowest since 1954 – deflation here we come
The United States Department of Labor released its monthly data on inflation today at 8:30AM. The data showed that inflation rose only 0.1% over the last year, the lowest reading since 1954. I should note that oil and food prices continue…
British commercial property prices down 27% in 2008
Last year, the British economy was one of the hardest hit by the now evident commercial property (CRE) implosion. Prices fell 27.1% in 2008, including a record 5.8% in December alone, suggesting the trend is accelerating. I mentioned in my…
U.S. unadjusted jobless claims fourth highest in history
This past week, jobless claims in the U.S. soared as they always do after the holiday season. For the week ending Jan. 10th, initial jobless claims were 524,000, up 54,000 from the prior week. However, this figure is completely distorted…
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund loses $125 billion
In my book, losing a gargantuan $125 billion qualifies you as the dumb money. This appears to be what has happened at Abu Dhabi's leading Sovereign Wealth Fund.
I had been warning all throughout 2008 that the Sovereign Wealth Funds were…
JPMorgan: Beats expectations despite writedowns
JPMorgan Chase moved up its earnings announcement to today in order to surprise the market with better than expected earnings. The company reported full-year income of $5.6 billion and 4th-quarter income of $702 million or $0.07 a share,…
Meredith Whitney: “I would diversify out of financials here”
The statements coming from Meredith Whitney in this video interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo could not be more blunt: the financial serves sector is weak, needs bailout money and investors will be diluted. As a result, she expects…
A brief note on upcoming bank earnings announcements
Earnings season is upon us and I think it bears remembering that earnings season for banks has generally been associated with very bad news for banks over the past two years. Every earnings season is filled with surprise writedown…
Revisiting regional banks
As you know from reading my blog, I am expecting a lot of writedowns from regional banks as real estate loans sour.
In fact, I expect a number of bankruptcies because of defaults in commercial real estate where much exposure is hidden.…
Greece sees credit rating cut by S&P
With the economy weakening significantly around the globe, the budgets of sovereign nations are coming under increased pressure. As a result S&P has put a number of countries under review for potential credit downgrades. However, now,…
European-Asian trade falls off a cliff
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has picked up on the decline in trade flows that many have highlighted in recent months. This time, he looks at European-Asian trade flows and sees some major problems.