Credit Writedowns

Michael Arrington, a prolific blogger in the Tech community, has written a thoughtful piece on bloggers’ right/duty to protect confidential sources in the face of government pressure to do otherwise.  I’d like to post a portion of that…

BBC News - China and Asean free trade deal begins The Dean Martins of Peak Oil | Gregor.us UK house prices end decade 117pc higher, says Nationwide - Telegraph New Year's Blogging Resolutions, Arnold Kling | EconLog (I…

This post originally read 2009. Obviously, I am still living in the past. WaMu says tax refund may double, shares soar| Reuters Reviving Confidence in the American Economy China, Investment and the Deficit Hawks - naked capitalism…

About three months ago, Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman took a stab at explaining why economists didn’t anticipate the worst financial crisis in three-quarters of a century. His was a long piece, taking up eight pages and 6,000…

Most Read Why the Federal reserve wants to drain excess reserves Case-Shiller ekes out gain despite decline in 12 of 20 markets Humans are built to be hypocritical Double dip recession and the perverse math of GDP reporting…

Which states are facing the worst budget deficits in 2010? / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com (Hat tip Yves Smith) The Twelve Most Tarnished Brands in Tech|Technologizer Harsh lessons we may need to learn again -…

I have been largely silent about the recent populist call to arms by Arianna Huffington and Rob Johnson. The duo advise Americans to withdraw their money from bank accounts at too-big-to-fail financial institutions and deposit them in a…

The dust has settled a bit on the Treasury’s recent decision to give Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a green light to nationalize our mortgage problem. Calculated Risk says the move was not necessarily done on Christmas Eve to escape notice. And…

Happy New Year to everyone. Welcome to 2010. Let’s keep dancing! When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing.…

Initial jobless claims of 432,000 for the week ended 26 Dec 2009 were the lowest since July 2008. The 4-week average is now 460,250, the lowest since September 2008. If you look at the following two graphs, you can see that initial claims…