Credit Writedowns

I am on record for expecting a drop in oil prices in the very near future due to demand destruction. Regarding the super spike, I believe much of the end rally in oil prices had little to do with fundamentals and everything to do with…

Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski says that Goldman Sachs is looking to buy a deposit-taking bank to avoid the liquidity problems that were Bear's downfall and may now hit Merrill Lynch itself. Goldman’s chief financial officer, David…

Hank Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary has decided that the German Covered Bond is a solution to many of the woes of the U.S. housing market meltdown. He is backed by four large U.S. banks: Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase…

"I am officially scared. In 2000, we had a technology bubble. But this is massive, a massive credit crisis and a bubble in global housing, global equity and global land." -Jeremy Grantham as quoted by Chicago Tribune

Last week, we heard that Australia's NAB had to take a massive writedown due to American CDO exposure (apparently triggered by Merrill Lynch). Yesterday, we heard about Australia's ANZ Bank taking it on the chin to the tune of $1.2 million…

Japan Jobless Rate Rises to 4.1%, Highest Since 2006 - BloombergPlan to revive mortgage lending - BBC News (Is an American-style bailout in the offing in the UK?)Merrill's $5.7B Write-Down, $8.5B Share Issuance - Big Picture (interesting…

In further proof that we're back to the Great Depression again, everyone is talking about unsecured bank deposits. Basically, if you have less than $100K at an FDIC institution, you're good to go. If you have more, you'll need to spread…

I swear Merrill just wrote down $9.4 billion and sold its stake in Bloomberg two weeks ago. So why are they in the news AGAIN writing down another $5.7 billion? It's frightening to think this company is still a going concern. The company…

For someone like me who flew nearly 150 flights in 2007, airport lounges are great bonus. Kicking back at Toronto's Pearson airport with all the free Molson you want makes airport delays doable. And the children's room with near…

IMF sees no end in sight to credit crisis - FTBBVA boosted by expansion in U.S. and China - FTFormer Google engineers unveil new search engine - National PostCommodities such as oil could be the latest bubble about to burst - Roger Bootle,…