Credit Writedowns

An article in the National Post suggests General Motors may look to divert some of its bailout money to Europe in the wake of a chill in German government support for subsidies. Talk of using taxpayer money to benefit workers in other…

On the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to China, a major Chinese official has criticized U.S. monetary policy in unusually harsh language. Liu Mingkang, China Banking Regulatory Commission chairman said the zero interest rate…

Deluge of Pleas to Spare Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Roof - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com Bob Herbert - A Recovery for Some - NYTimes.com Bair calls U.S. bank bailout not a good thing | Reuters It’s the stupidity economy - Paul Krugman…

Today, I want to run a few thoughts by you courtesy of John Mauldin.  In his recent weekly newsletter, he makes a number of points I have made here over the past few weeks and comes to a similar conclusion about the weakness of…

Orion Bank, Naples, Florida As of October 31, 2009, Orion Bank had total assets of $2.7 billion and total deposits of approximately $2.1 billion. The FDIC accepted a 1.5 percent discount from IBERIABANK on the deposits of the failed…

This is Ordos. Hat tip Barry Ritholtz

Bill Gross of Pimco spoke on Bloomberg with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt. He thinks the U.S. is entering a new normal of low nominal GDP growth. However, financial bets have been made on 6-7 percent nominal GDP (think pension…

From Bloomberg: Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped in November as the loss of jobs threatened to undermine the biggest part of the economy. The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index decreased…

Finance and Economy Wall Street Makes It Hard to Earn Legal Living: Alice Schroeder - Bloomberg.com FT Alphaville - FDIC saves securitisation BBC NEWS - Russian economy growing strongly Henry Kaufman: The Real Threat to Fed…

The motivating factor?  this article in Politico: President Barack Obama plans to announce in next year's State of the Union address that he wants to focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010 – and will downplay…