Credit Writedowns

Since the housing bubble created a global credit crunch in June 2007 after Bear Stearns announced the collapse of two funds it ran (its High-Grade Structured Credit Fund and its High Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund), there…

I have been in Europe for a while and am back at blogging after a two-week hiatus. This morning I was listening to "Wake Up To Money," a British finance show that one can hear via podcast. The gist of the discussion was that the UK…

2008 06 - Next Phase of the Credit Crisis to Hit Credit Default Swaps $62 Trillion Market2008 06 - Frank-Dodd Rescue Prolongs Housing Crisis by Deferring Defaults2008 06 - Federal Reserve and ECB are in no mood to save us from the…

Update: Also see my list of Bankrupt global financial institutions. Recently, the pace of writedowns by major money center banks has increased. UBS announced today it wrote down $19 billion. Deutsche Bank announced today it wrote down $4…

Food Price Inflation Changes How We Shop - Chicago Tribune (3/31/2008)Fed eyes Nordic-style nationalisation of U.S. banks - UK Telegraph (4/1/2008)UBS writes off $19 billion - Yahoo! News (4/1/2008)Deutsche Bank Expects $4B Subprime Hit -…

A few days ago Comstock Partners released a Special Report outlining how we got into the economic malaise that is hitting us right now. Their report is spot on in terms of the genesis of our problems being easy money. They also accurately…

Recently, on Mar. 18th, the Federal Reserve lowered the Fed Funds rate to 2.25%. In the accompanying statement, the Fed said the following: "Recent information indicates that the outlook for economic activity has weakened further. Growth…

This is a story of unequal re-distribution of wealth from the less fortunate to the more fortunate. This is a story of the United States in which the rich get richer at the expense of everybody else. At the conclusion, ask yourself: is this…

Note from June 2010: You'll forgive me if I have conflated private and public sector debt below as if they are the same. They are not. When I speak of deficit spending in the same voice as private sector debts, I really point to deficits to…

As the housing bubble pops, one major casualty is likely to be state and local government property tax receipts. It appears that state and local governments recklessly spent the windfall revenue that they received during the boom times and…