Economy

You have probably heard a lot of noise about what was said about the housing bubble at Federal Reserve meetings in 2006. There is a quote from Timothy Geithner, then the NY Fed chief, that I think is quite revealing.

Below is the link to my latest appearance on BNN with Howard Green and Ryan Avent. Quick thoughts here

Just as Europe and the US are suffering massive downgrades, other countries are seeing their risk profiles improve. Indonesia is a perfect example.

We think markets are getting too bulled up on the IMF headlines today. As the saying goes, “Show me the money!” Until then, we remain skeptical that the IMF will be able to obtain the extra funding it desires. Even if the IMF does get the…

Fortunately the ECB has deep pockets, and as I argue in this post, these will probably suffice to keep short term bond yields down to acceptable levels, and help the banks fund themselves and recapitalise. What the ECB’s LTRO’s won’t do is…

This is grim. Bill Black has the analysis; he thinks this is a criminogenic environment of control frauds.

Check out the below graphic which shows General Government Deficit/Surplus as % of GDP on the Y axis, Government Debt as % of GDP on the X axis, and the Government Debt in Euros as the size of the bubble. Pretty cool!

There has been a lot of discussion about whether China's growth will slow enough to be considered a hard landing and what that would mean for the global economy and investors. Below is an account from Bloomberg featuring Goldman Sachs Chief…

That's a full percentage lower than Q1 2011. So clearly the Chinese economy has slowed in reaction to both global slowing and the Chinese authorities' attempts to cool asset and price inflation.

Perhaps the main point to take to heart from the events of the last week is the way the recent ECB liquidity measures have apparently been able to stabilise the debt crisis, at least for the time being, even while it is not clear that they…