government

These charts were compiled by Pimco via data collected from the Federal Reserve and Credit Suisse. They show that U.S. companies are earning record amounts of money but are not re-investing it. Instead, companies are hoarding cash.…

I like how this reporter starts off his interview with Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb. Of course what underlies this oxymoron is the "shoot the messenger" heuristic. Wikipedia describes "shooting the messenger"…

From ADP (pdf): Nonfarm private employment increased 13,000 from May to June 2010 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report®. The estimated change in employment from April to May 2010 was revised up…

While California has been the poster boy for state budgetary woes, Illinois has moved into the top spot as the US state most likely to default on its debt. To avoid default more cuts are going to be necessary. See recent posts by me and…

The European debt crisis has thus far unfolded as a sovereign debt crisis.  And the sovereign here is the national government.  This is particularly true in Greece. However in the coming months, it may become clearer that local…

A post by John Mauldin. "Everyone" is upset with the level of fiscal deficits being run by nearly every developed country. And with much justification. The levels of fiscal deficits are unsustainable and threaten to bring many…

Just as a point of fact, it bears noting that government debt is a government liability in much the same way that bank notes are. what is the functional difference for the federal government between Treasury securities and bank notes?…

Muni investors are acting as if there is no default risk in the municipal bond market based on yields.  It's a bit like the conditions in the eurozone before the sovereign debt crisis. The Wall Street Journal reports: Investors are…

This is a question I have been struggling with since the sovereign debt crisis began.  So let me run a little of it by you.  This may be half-baked but I would love some comments. In a perfect world, we would have full employment…

We got a huge pop in jobs in last month's employment report. And this was mainly responsible for the drop in the unemployment rate as over 400,000 temporary census jobs came online.  John Lounsbury figures that the individuals employed…