Credit Writedowns

In the wake of today's extraordinary credit ratings action for the euro zone by Standard and Poor's, below are the rating agency's sovereign credit ratings.

The following is the text of the S&P ratings statement associated with a review of the euro area sovereign credit ratings.

A chart of gasoline consumption and oil prices for the years 2000-2011.

Is there any government body having a harder time of it these days than the SEC? Sometimes it feels like someone pinned a giant “Kick me” sign to its collective back. I’ve written previously about a key factor that I think is partly…

The myth that Greeks are lazy and Germans are industrious and that this has some significance in the sovereign debt crisis is everywhere one turns. It is false. The issues for Greece are not about working longer hours but are ones of…

Financial news links for 13 January 2012

Read between the lines. Bank of America is on government life support. As a result, it is being forced to shed assets and cut staff in the hope that this will be enough to prevent its having to be bailed out or resolved. Moreover, a…

Colbert says "clearly, my fellow South Caroliniacs see me as the only viable "Mitt-ternative". Take a look.

After the better than expected Spanish bond auction, eurozone sovereign spreads came in significantly yesterday. Even before today's auction, the widely watched Italian 10-year bond yield had fallen to 6.63 percent.

There is less mobility in the work force because the computers are not simply displacing jobs, they are taking out the middle. Because they take out the middle, it is a lot harder to pursue the American dream by working your way up the…