Credit Writedowns

This comes via Gallup: The latest Gallup Daily tracking results show 49% of Americans approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, putting him below the majority approval level for the first time in his presidency.…

Morgan Stanley’s piece on Treasuries Priced for Perfection...for Now! is pretty bearish. The basic gist is that while the ten-year represents fair value today, because inflation expectations have become unanchored, Morgan Stanley expects…

Valero Energy has just announced it is shutting down its Delaware City Refinery.  This is a major news announcement because refiners should be seen as a canary in the coalmine for end-user demand and Valero is one company in the oil…

Nationwide Says British House Prices May Fall on Job Losses - Bloomberg.com Investors ask Goldman to be less greedy: report | Reuters BBC News - Tobacco firm Philip Morris to pay out $300m in damages Susan Boyle Makes Amazon…

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The Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting that nearly one in ten households with mortgages are at least one payment behind.  That is a record, my friends. And it certainly means we cannot believe house prices have permanently…

I pick up Bill Gross where I left him on Friday.  He said in his monthly newsletter that the Fed is going to keep interest rates at zero percent through 2010. But, he is not willing to stick his neck out in a liquidity seeking return…

I have written extensively about how I believe the bank bailouts were the worst of all possible solutions – fixes that perpetuate too big to fail, moral hazard and crony capitalism.  That ship has sailed, but the questions still linger…

Video embedded below. See also Democratic Rep. DeFazio Calls for Geithner and Summers to Be Fired - Yves Smith

Here’s another interesting piece from Randall Wray, the economics professor from University of Missouri-Kansas City (that same school which employs Bill Black of “The Best Way to Rob a bank is to own one” fame). Wray has a lot to say…