austerity

FDIC Chair Sheila Bair spoke with Bloomberg News yesterday and the topic was interest rates and banks ability to withstand a higher interest rate environment. While Bair was careful to stress that this is not a "short-term…

Over the past few days, I have heard from a number of stock market analysts say that this past September's rally in the S&P500 was the best performance since at least 1939. That's 71 years! This afternoon, I heard an analyst describing…

by Edward Hugh Last Thursday Moody’s Investor Service cut Spain’s Sovereign credit – to Aa1 from AAA – thus removing the last of the country’s highly-valued triple-A ratings. The move really surprised no one – in this case the Moody’s…

Topic of the Day: Military and Terrorism Obama: 'We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan' Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias - TIME The Growing Chasm Between Citizen and Soldier -…

I mostly liked this video but I ask "Is this an accurate depiction?"  It definitely has a slant – one that I don't necessarily agree with and that seems political. The subtext at the beginning of the video:…

See video below for a discussion of this theme (hat tip Barry Ritholtz). This is a very good video for learning about how debt deflationary spirals are created by the "fallacy of composition" and how it applies to countries in a…

International Tension FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - Currencies clash in the new age of beggar-my-neighbour Retaliation is Likely - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Anne Applebaum - China's quiet power grab Plaza…

“I am deeply ashamed to know that I won't be able to pay our staff. They have got mortgages, children. What am I supposed to do?" Jesus Manuel Ampero, Mayor of Cenicientos (Spain) It has been an unpredictable summer. Investors…

Bloomberg's David Tweed has made a run through Europe highlighting the economy in each country as he reports this August. He has just gone to the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the videos of which I feature below. While…

Topic of the day: Fiscal Problems 1. The U.S. and Reinhart and Rogoff Reinhart And Rogoff Are Confusing Me - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com Debt and growth revisited | Reinhart and Rogoff Why Won’t “Fiscal Hawks” Discuss The…