Credit Writedowns

If you don't think that the recapitalisation scheme by Gordon Brown doesn't matter, then take a look no further than Nationwide Building Society. The mutual company is not under pressure in the equity markets like RBS, HBOS or Barclays.…

Happy Monday! After weeks of dire news and falling markets, we are seeing a rally that might have legs. For those of us who don't want to see a global depression, that is very good news. Certainly, the markets have reason for rallying…

This morning is shaping u to be one of the largest up days in market history. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up over 10%. Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 6 and 1/2 percent. In Europe, major markets are up as much as 7%. Dow…

This morning I woke up and was listening to Bloomberg Radio in bed when I heard Robert Shiller and John Ryding talking about about Paul Krugman. I quickly realized he was the Nobel Laureate in Economics for this year. Krugman, the…

Talking about how he will fare against Barack Obama in the upcoming third and last U.S. Presidential Debate, John McCain said:"We're going to spend a lot of time and after I whip his you-know-what in this debate, we're going to be going…

SourceTom Toles Cartoons - Washington Post

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has pulled through the credit crisis with a much higher profile than ever before. I was initially skeptical that the firm was hiding huge losses at it had exposure in Spain, the UK and the US, all…

Looking at the action in overnight trading, I see a very strong move to the upside in the offing in equity markets worldwide. All of the data is looking bullish. In Australia, the All Ordinaries is up five percent led by banking shares.…

The European Union has finally shown that it can get Europe-wide crisis initiatives of significance passed. Not only many EU countries guarantee bank deposits, but now bank borrowing has been backstopped as well. At first blush, this…

You have probably heard people bandy about the term pro-cyclical as it has become a key concept for economists as we enter a downturn. The crux of pro-cyclicality is that some things rise with an upswing, but fall with downswings --…