Credit Writedowns

I am off to a wedding today and through the weekend, so I will leave you with the links and one more post to come. I hope to hear from you all again on Monday.  Have a great weekend. Paul Kedrosky: Why I Love Venture Capitalists…

Remember when Paul Krugman asked aloud “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” He had a very well-received answer.  But he left out something. The elephant in the room was debt.  No one seems to have been noticing. Below is a…

That was the title of an e-mail I received from my bank today. Here is what the e-mail looked like:

But, everywhere I look, everybody is saying it is. I would like to be true to the data and not just take the government’s seasonally-adjusted numbers at face value. Judge for yourself. Here’s the data: This is what everyone is focused on…

Here’s the joke of the day via Steve Keen: Ten reasons the economy is so bad (I suggest this as a top ten for David Letterman?): #10: I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. #9: I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid…

Marshall Auerback here with a few thoughts on employment policy and the limit to government spending in a fiat currency regime. The Detroit story Edward just posted illustrates that we should start by eliminating the notion that society…

Jobless claims were reported as 521,000 on a seasonally-adjusted (SA) basis for the week ended October 3. This is the lowest reported figure for initial claims since January 3. The data came in lower than expectations and was matched by a…

The banks have been the ones benefitting most from free money via the Federal Government and U.S. taxpayers.  Given 9.8% base unemployment and 17.0% comprehensive unemployment, it is a bit galling for ordinary Americans that these same…

A friend sent me the following article from USA Today: The U.S. taxpayers' investments in smaller banks are increasingly at risk. In a sign that more banks are under great pressure from the recession, 34 financial institutions did…

Hypo Needs an Extra $10.2 Billion to Survive - WSJ.com "German real-estate financier Hypo Real Estate Holding AG needs an additional €7 billion ($10.2 billion) in capital from the German government to stay afloat and won't…