Economy

Morgan Stanley released a dismal earnings report one day after Goldman's. Obviously this is shaping up to a be a very bad quarter for financial institutions. Morgan's $2.2 billion loss was certainly less than Goldman's but very large…

I recently wrote a post about U.S. Treasury securities which have been rising in price as interest rates have come down. In the post, I called the Treasury rise a bubble and I stick by that moniker despite protests from some astute readers.…

Goldman has done exceptionally well compard to other investment banks through this credit crisis. However, many were predicting a stunning turn of fortune for the latest reporting period. And stunning it was as Goldman lost a mammoth $2.1…

Another Friday night in America means another bank goes bust. This week, it's two banks: Haven Trust of Georgia nd Sanderson State of Texas. BB&T is stepping in for the deposits at Haven Trust. And Pecos is taking the deposits at…

It's been a month since I updated my list of writedowns and other credit crisis-related news, so I am sure that this list is filled with holes and missing information. Here it goes nonetheless. Below are the writedowns from the previous…

Jamie Dimon tells it like it is. When asked by CNBC's Erin Burnett's how business is going, Dimon replied "terrible." Here's how Reuters describes his comments: "November itself has been a terrible trading month ... (and) December so far is…

Weekly jobless claims rose in the U.S. to the highest level since 1982, signaling a further deterioration in the U.S. employment market. The seasonally-adjusted number for initial claims was 573,000 while the real number was an eye-popping…

Yves Smith has a good post over at Naked Capitalism that brings attention to the fact that banks are hiding potential losses in Level Three assets. Ultimately, these losses are going to have to be recorded and that means more credit…

This video is a good laugh given what we now know about the alleged criminal activity going on in Illinois Governor Blagojevich's office. Here is Blogojevich yesterday at a press conference. The man is smug and obnoxious. Now, he is going…

I have seen this all over the political blogosphere.  Blagojevich is reputed to have been under investigation for corruption and wire-tapping charges for quite a while.  They finally decided to pull the trigger and arrest him over this.…