Economy

Of all of the inflation indices the ONS (Office for National Statistics) in the UK uses, the RPI data are the most comprehensive. This particular series runs back to 1948 and is use in all manner of contracts, pension schemes, what have…

From Bloomberg News: Regional Banks Tumble Zions, the lender with operations in 10 Western U.S. states, tumbled 10 percent to $33.44 for the steepest decline in the S&P 500. ``Weakness'' in residential construction and land values in…

Industrial production and capacity utilization numbers were released by the Fed this morning. These numbers are important because production is one of five factors the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) looks at to judge…

Mervyn King correctly assessed inflation risks to be temporary and the downside to come from the real economy. It sounds like he is not hawkish. Chances of a rate cut are down now. I believe the BoE wants some inflation to help do the…

Regional banks have not suffered the writedowns suffered by the major banks and investment banks due to their lack of derivatives exposure. But, loose lending standards are starting to bite. The LA Times has an excellent story out, which…

U.S. regional bank M&T has sued Deutsche Bank because of losses M&T suffered on CDOs sold to it by the German bank, according to the German website Der Spiegel. Deutsche Bank allegedly told M&T that the CDOs were "safe" and…

I was reading a report by the New York Times today, which outlined that Wall Street has earned half of what it earned last year because of massive credit losses. That's a pretty spectacular fall. What it actually got me thinking about was…

My greatest concern is deflation. Hence the title of my blog "Credit Writedowns." However, inflation is still a short-term threat to destabilizing the global economy. The recent floods in the heartland of America is not only tragic, but…

The following are the links regarding the global credit crunch that have been recently added to the Credit Crisis Timeline. The full timeline is accessible here 2008 06 05 MBIA, Ambac, $1 Trillion of Debt, Lose S&P AAA Rating2008 06 05…

The Financial Times' blog Alphaville is reporting today that those investors who ponied up for shares in financial institutions after the financials wrote down billions and needed additional capital - those investors - lost $10 billion!…