Credit Writedowns

As understandable as the Congressional response to the AIG bonuses was, the reality is that this does create a number of disturbing precedents. We have a stupid Congress mindlessly lashing out to compensate for its own complicity in…

This analysis comes via Brown Brothers Harriman (I have bolded a few lines): Mexico's central bank is widely expected to cut its overnight rate by 25 bp today. That would bring it to 7.25%. Last month it delivered a 25 bp rate cut too.…

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor released its Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report. I see the data as mostly good. The headline seasonally-adjusted numbers were 646,000 initial claims and 5.47 million continuing claims, both…

Today, I want to make the case for seeing writedowns as central to this global downturn. To do so, we need to rewind and compare what is going on today with what we have experienced in the past. Drawing on this comparison, I can…

Marshall Auerback here. I have a few thoughts about AIG and what it means politically and for American banks. The episode may have already made it much harder to get any support in Congress for bailing out more banks in the future. The…

The dishonest "Blame Dodd" scheme from Treasury officials - Salon The AIG 2008 Employee Retention Plan - Tyler Durden President Barack Obama: Perhaps he can't fix it. . . - Telegraph Slaughtering sacred cows: it’s the turn of the…

This comes via the Financial Times. The Swiss National Bank’s decision to intervene to weaken the franc has left currency investors with one less haven from the financial crisis. Its move comes at a time when there are also questions…

Quantitative easing is now the main policy course for the U.S. Federal Reserve. The U.S. Federal reserve is buying $300 billion in long-term U.S. government debt in order to keep interest rates low. As a result, the rally I in Treasuries…

The U.S. dollar is getting hammered today. It is now trading near 1.34 to the euro, 1.42 to Sterling, 96 to the Yen and 1.14 to the Swiss franc. These are huge hockey stick style moves. from 1.30 to the euro, 1.39 to the pound, 98 to the…

Recently, I have highlighted the comments of a number of investing gurus, most of whom are fairly positive on the market. This includes Jeremy Grantham, Marc Faber, Bill Fleckenstein, Fred Hickey, Marty Fridson and Steven Leuthold (Louise…