Sign in
Sign in
Recover your password.
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Browsing Category
Economy
Ireland, Spain, Canada and Germany scrutiny
As I have mentioned in previous posts, the housing bubble was an international phenomenon. As a result, the U.S. subprime meltdown is indeed spreading beyond this limited sector. In the US, expect Alt-A and prime mortgages to feel the…
The UK is ground zero in the credit crisis
Recently, I have started to shift my focus out of the U.S. and abroad as the subprime crisis has become a global credit crisis. The myth of global de-coupling (assumption that other economies could thrive without the help of the American…
More on HBOS
The Lex column in Yesterday's FT highlights what many market players are thinking about the company's £4 billion ($8 billion) rights issue: the economic outlook in the UK is worse than feared."The main potential explanation for the apparent…
HBOS to raise new capital
As I predicted on Saturday, HBOS has got caught up in the global mortgage meltdown. Bloomberg reports:HBOS Plc, the U.K.'s biggest mortgage lender, will sell 4 billion pounds ($8 billion) of shares to bolster capital depleted by asset…
Another massive write-down: Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank released earnings that showed a loss for the first time in five years as they wrote down $4.2 billion in equity as a result of the global credit crisis. While Deutsche Bank has got off well because of reduced exposure to…
CPI understates inflation
When you hear about inflation on TV, don't you often wonder why the official number seems lower than inflation feels to you when you go shopping? It's an open secret in Washington, but the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the common measure of…
Santander: US, Spanish and UK mortgage exposure
If you are looking for companies that have yet to write down massive amounts of losses in this global credit meltdown, look no further than Banco Santander. The Spanish Bank holds a major position in the Spanish mortgage and construction…
Globalization hits a brick wall
As I suggested in my blog titled 'The U.S. Economy 2008,' protectionism is the obvious outcome to a global economic downturn. As the economy turns down, people feel frustrated and angry. They look for scapegoats and turn to economic…
Where’s HBOS?
Looking through old e-mails, I read an article from the FT in 2006 that surfaced claiming that HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland)were poised and ready to go offer loans for 125% of value. That's right, HBOS thought it a good idea to cover 95%…
Spain’s problems
There was heavy overbuilding in Spain as the global housing bubble caught fire there these past years. Now, Spain's bubble has burst and it is having dire economic consequences. The Spanish National Statistics Office released the most…