Credit Writedowns

In what is shaping up to be a common occurrence at these global meetings, protesters are shaking things up.  My understanding, however, is that there are more police on hand than protesters.  Rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear…

I will be at the Clinton Global Initiative Forum all day today, so I doubt there will be any posts until this afternoon.  For Canadian readers, I am doing a TV interview at 12:30PM ET on BNN on Obama’s relationship with Wall Street.…

The most newsworthy item in this clip is Emanuel saying that the healthcare bill cannot pass the Senate with a public option. Along those lines reports are now coming out that the Obama Administration is negotiating with Senator Olympia…

This is just in from the FDIC (emphasis added below). It should make clear that the banking system is still weak: Credit quality declined sharply for loan commitments of $20 million or more held by multiple federally supervised…

I have to admit to hyping the debate now swirling about protectionism. I believe that tariffs are not a very good solution to a trade problem as they are likely to result in retaliation and/or escalation. Moreover, they end up protecting…

The latest jobless claims data is in, with initial claims registering 530,000 and continuing claims coming in at 6.1 million.  These figures are well off the business cycle highs of a few months ago but still quite elevated. …

At issue here is the news that the Obama Administration dropped plans to force financial institutions to offer “plain vanilla” financial products that are simple enough for consumers to understand. My headline is editorial enough on this…

Below is a Market Watch video showing what ordinary Germans think heading into the general election.  Right now it’s looking like a right of center government of the CDU/CSU/FDP.  But, it will be down to the wire. Likely, there…

Pay rules may prompt Goldman to shed bank charter | Reuters "Some investors believe Goldman Sachs Group Inc may try to shed its commercial banking charter to sidestep U.S. government efforts to rein in exorbitant Wall Street…

Mark Mobius is one of the most famous Emerging Markets investors and right now he is bullish on Emerging Markets despite a huge rally in shares from late last year. Mobius turned bullish right as shares troughed and has remained so ever…