Credit Writedowns

I want to tie a few threads together regarding the synchronised global slowdown and the related drop in corporate earnings. US firms had been insulated on earnings due to not increasing staff and the global nature of their profiles. With…

Stephen Roach knows that quantitative easing represents what got us into this mess. But the market is addicted to it like an addict wanting "crack". So, the Fed is going to give the addict what it wants because advocates of easy money are…

The Euro is the national currency of a country that does not exist. Though there is a continent of Europe, as there is of America, there has never been a country of the United States of Europe, and there probably never will be. The Euro is…

Barton Biggs (1932-2012) will be remembered by most of us for the words he wrote as strategist at Morgan Stanley. He worked at the firm for 30-odd years. He did not waver in his dismissal of Internet bubble promoters. At the same time,…

Apple is in a market share/margin quandary that was inevitable, Steve Jobs or not.

Sandy Weill repudiates his pre-crisis "financial supermarket" legacy in suggesting that banks were too big and too leveraged. He openly advocates re-instituting Glass-Steagall. He also supports mark to market.

I want to revisit Richard Koo's comments three weeks ago after his meeting with a number of German policymakers. I think they are illuminating in terms of why Euro crisis policy is as it is. And given the downturn in German economic…

Moody's Investors Service issued the following press release in connection with a ratings action on German and Dutch regional debt. The action was taken as a result of the change of each sovereign's debt to a negative outlook.

Editor's note: The following press release was issued by Moody's in connection with yesterday's ratings action on the temporary European bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.

I have said it in the past, but it bears repeating now in view of poor German economic data, as difficult as the austerity/bailout dance has been , it will become even more difficult in a downturn which affects Germany and other core…