Credit Writedowns

Jobless claims hit a 5-year high of 448K last week, leaving everyone under the impression that the employment numbers are deteriorating rapidly. However, the massive increase in jobless claims for the past week is very misleading because…

One reason I believe inflation pressures will slow going forward is that the global economy has already slowed enough to have a measurable impact on oil demand and all commodity prices across the board. As July comes to an end, the month…

Berkshire Hathaway, the company led by Warren Buffett, is offering a five-year debt deal for the highest spread over treasurys in its history. As Berkshire is a low-risk AAA company, this fact reinforces the magnitude of credit market…

Nationwide Building Society released its monthly house price index for the UK showing an annual rate of decline of 8.1%, the highest since UK house prices began falling last year. This suggests that UK house prices are accelerating through…

The major European banks have gotten into the swing of things with their own reporting season. Today, Deutsche Bank and HBOS reported earnings.Deutsche Bank recorded a pre-tax profit of 642 millioneuros after writedowns of $3.6 billion due…

The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time because of weak business has swelled to more than 3.7 million — the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century…

Trade talks collapse frustrates Africa - Fin24 (Africa is the real loser here in a dispute between the EU, U.S. and China and India)India blamed for Doha collapse by trying to protect poor farmers - Times Online (The finger pointing…

Robert Samuelson has written an excellent piece describing how the U.S. has become obsessed with residential property to its detriment. The result has been over- and malinvestment in homes that will take years, if not decades to…

Spain narrowly escaped negative GDP with a very marginal 0.1% increase in GDP on the quarter in Q2 2008. This is up 1.8% from last year, but way below growth rates seen in Spain over the past decade.The latest bulletin of the Bank of Spain…

Apparently the credit crisis is claiming victims in the financial sector everywhere including this New London, CT credit union and its investment manager. Obviously, credit unions aren't immune either.The 82-year-old broker who handled…