Credit Writedowns

Caroline Baum had a good column today at Bloomberg in which she suggests central banks consider asset prices in monetary policy going forward. In the piece she quoted William White, a former economist from the Bank for International…

Weekly jobless claims rose in the U.S. to the highest level since 1982, signaling a further deterioration in the U.S. employment market. The seasonally-adjusted number for initial claims was 573,000 while the real number was an eye-popping…

Yves Smith has a good post over at Naked Capitalism that brings attention to the fact that banks are hiding potential losses in Level Three assets. Ultimately, these losses are going to have to be recorded and that means more credit…

Yesterday, I mentioned an article I caught in the German newspaper Die Welt which outlined the desire for VW and Daimler Benz to receive bailouts in response to the state aid being offered to American car makers. I warned that a competitve…

So we have gotten our auto sector bailout. Let's see how this shakes out. I am already hearing rumblings that this will not be easy as bondholders are not playing nice. See the link to Felix Salmon's comments below. My own view is that bond…

It seems that the bailouts are now turning into a "Beggar Thy Neighbor" policy of aid for specific sectors of the global economy. First, it was finance as the banks were savaged by massive writedowns to their property and derivative…

You think things are bad where you were. Well, then, take a look at Ireland. Irish punters are really taking it on the chin. Stocks are down 75% from their peak in February 2007. This makes 2008 the worst year for Irish equities since…

On the financial scene, I see the biggest news as being the fact that the yield on 3-month treasuries have now gone negative. This is an absolute first. This means the U.S. government is being paid by investors to borrow. Given the fact…

The yield on he three-month U.S. treasury bill went below zero for the first time ever. This seems to be an unprecedented move where investors are actually paying the U.S. Government to borrow money. In my estimation, this is not just a…

This video is a good laugh given what we now know about the alleged criminal activity going on in Illinois Governor Blagojevich's office. Here is Blogojevich yesterday at a press conference. The man is smug and obnoxious. Now, he is going…