Credit Writedowns

Goldman Sachs (GS) and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) have announced a settlement of the suit over the Abacus security case which was a civil action charging fraud by Goldman. According to the SEC announcement, which I watched…

The latest weekly commentary by Comstock Partners. We stated in the 4th of July holiday comment that we would discuss valuations in the "special report" we wrote last week. As it turned out the "special report" got…

Wow. The iPhone 4 antenna issue is turning into a nightmare for Apple. You've got David Letterman joking about it. Now Whoopi Goldberg tells millions of viewers she hates the new iPhone. Will there be a recall? She caveats this thing but…

Highlights US dollar was mostly weaker vs. the majors, up modestly only vs. AUD and CAD as the euro made another new high for the cycle near 1.2950. By ending the day at the highs, further euro gains look likely in Asia today. The yen and…

BBC's travel program Fast Track had a story about how Santiago has been working hard since the earthquake to (re)build its position as a cool global city. I have never been to Santiago (let alone Chile) so I cannot say whether there is any…

The 0.1% rise in US industrial output in June seems to defy expectations for the first decline since mid-2009, but the headline is deceiving. Manufacturing, the key component actually fell 0.4%. The headline was flattered by a 2.7% jump in…

Posting may be light this morning, but there are a few issues on tap to discuss. JPMorgan Chase had great earnings, beating estimates by 40 cents a share. Of course, they did so largely on the back of lower loan loss reserves. So I remain…

Highlights The US dollar is broadly lower against the major foreign currencies.   The combination of Fed’s recognition of downside risks to the US economy and inflation coupled with relatively smooth bond auctions from Spain and…

This is just in from PIMCO's Paul McCulley, who seems to have caught on to the Wynne Godley sectoral balances approach to viewing the macro economy (hat tip Scott).  He says: Double-entry bookkeeping was a great invention. It is a…

What happened to the days when people were saying this phone was one of the most beautiful things we've ever made?" When you make Letterman, you have a problem.