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I think it goes without saying for those of you who have been using the sectoral balances approach, government deficits are what have been driving corporate profits in the U.S. to record levels. Most analysts and news outlets focus on the…

While I first started warning  about Android taking share from Apple in 2009, I was not worried about earnings at Apple. It wasn't until this year that margin compression became an issue for me. But even then, it wasn't clear the issue…

After embarking on a third round of easing last year that only involved extending the length of its zero rate policy and changing the Fed's Treasury portfolio duration mix, the Fed has recently started QE3 with an even more aggressive tone.…

There has been a bit of talk about jobless claims since the abnormally large fall in claims two weeks ago. Those numbers were skewed by reporting anomalies that were adjusted in the subsequent week. Looking beyond the week to week data,…

A key sticking point in the European policy debates over the banking sector concerns bank recapitalisation. As one would expect, the countries in crisis that have experienced a property bust like Spain and Ireland, would like to strip away…

I saw this story yesterday in a Swedish newspaper and thought it was interesting enough to comment on. Apparently, Swedish investment professionals are telling clients that the Spanish market is "hot" right now, given the depressed state of…

Two years ago, I noted that the steep yield curve produced by the Fed's policy accommodation would give way to a flatter and more treacherous yield curve environment as a weak recovery continued. The Fed would see the weak recovery as a…

Apple's latest tablet, the much-anticipated iPad mini, is out and reactions are all over the web. The big news from the Apple presser is threefold: the iPad mini will retail starting at $329, the MacBook Pro line gets a retina display…

When I started to write about the mobile space on Credit Writedowns three years ago, it was clear to me that Apple's strategy as a sole hardware manufacturer earning high margins and maintaining dominant market share was limited. The…

Josh Barro has written a very comprehensive post at Bloomberg analsying Mitt Romney's tax plan. His conclusion is that the plan is mathematically impossible, leading one to assume that a President Romney would have to break his pledge on…