Credit Writedowns

The data being reported out of Asia is in marked contrast to what we are seeing in Europe and North America.  Last week, I noted that Singapore had put up big numbers.  China is also expanding robustly. Compare that with the data coming out…

In the just finished second quarter of 2009, the UK economy was contracting a massive 5.6% from the year ago period.  This is the worst performance since records began in 1955. What’s more, the data surprised to the downside, with the…

Stop And Smell The Flowers -- The Scent Really Can Soothe Stress Japanese scientists have shown this. Comment: Why people don't act on climate change - New Scientist "People's attitudes towards climate change, even Pope's, are…

This is part two of the End of Wall Street series the Wall Street Journal is producing. Chapter Two of A WSJ series: What was going through the minds of CEOs, corporate boards, fund managers and mortgage lenders as they created…

Charlie spoke with Obama’s Director of the Office of Management & Budget yesterday.  The video is below and it runs 30 minutes.  Orszag talks about Obama’s health care reform proposal after the first 11 minutes taken up by…

Not necessarily. There’s a lot more to it than just GDP.  Last year at almost exactly this time, I mentioned this in my post Recession while GDP is growing? because a lot of people were getting excited about the fact that Q2 GDP was…

This is a huge deal.  FASB is considering requiring all financial assets be valued at fair values on balance sheets.  Hat tip Andrew. Bloomberg reports (notice my highlighting in bold): The scope of the FASB’s initiative,…

When last week’s US jobless claims number was released, I indicated it was artificially low because of changes in the summer auto production schedules.  Rather than look at the numbers as they are released from week to week, we should look…

Bernanke Says Add Consumer Protection to Fed Mandate - Bloomberg.com You have to respect the chutzpah behind this. Audacious NAB raises $2b in oversubscribed placement Banks are getting capital everywhere. Buffett's $91,000 shares…

Here’s a credit-crisis video retrospective from the Wall Street Journal. It is chapter one of a three part series.  Notice the Wall Street meme that subprime borrowers caused the crisis which is patently false.  It’s all about…