Credit Writedowns

This comes via the Wall Street Journal: Highway-construction companies around the country, having completed the mostly small projects paid for by the federal economic-stimulus package, are starting to see their business run aground, an…

The latest ISM numbers are in for the U.S., showing that the manufacturing sector expanded for a fourth consecutive month in November. The overall number was weaker in November at 53.6 than last month’s 55.7. But both new orders and…

House prices in Britain rose another 0.5% in November, putting them up 2.7% year-on-year. This is the seventh consecutive month of gains. All of the charts are looking spectacularly good. The only fly in the ointment is employment. …

Below is another great article from John Mauldin via his weekly newsletter, this time featuring John Hussman who is talking double dip and depression. My last post shows I am very concerned about this scenario – which I see as likely - and…

From the site News from 1930: National City Bank notes epidemic of bank failures, and that “processes of deflation operate in a vicious circle” but is nevertheless optimistic: “obviously this sort of thing has to come to an end some…

As we discuss sovereign debt levels, currencies and competitiveness, it bears remembering that interest rates are at the heart of many of these debates. To the degree debt service costs are the only measure used to determine how high a…

Morgan Stanley fears UK sovereign debt crisis in 2010 - Telegraph Goldman Staff Packing Pistols to Defend Against Peasants - Yves Smith FT.com | Willem Buiter's Maverecon | Πάντα ῥεῖ (Mavercon is dead.) interfluidity - Good…

Below are three videos from a talk at the 2009 Economics of Peace Conference in Sonoma, CA, where James Galbraith talks about the Hyman Minsky concept of the instability of stability. This concept is fundamental to the behavioural…

These past few days saw some light posting. As December hits, I hope to be back up-to-speed with more posts. In the meantime, here are today’s links. How President Obama Can Take Back His Presidency -- New York Magazine Cristiano…

If you want to get a leading indicator of how retailers are doing, going online is definitely the best way to get up-to-the-minute data. Not only is the data coming out of online retailers much more real-time, there has also been a huge…