recession

Andy Xie believes ultra-low interest rates in the U.S. and elsewhere are fuelling an asset price bubble which will pop dramatically in 2012.  In his view, the policies of the world’s central banks are reckless and will lead to worse…

You kind of knew this was going to happen.  Given the fact that AmTrust Financial, the holding company filed bankruptcy (see my story here) after a bit of asset stripping, the FDIC was forced to come in and seize the banking subsidiary…

AmTrust Financial, a privately held regional bank holding company based in Cleveland, has just filed for bankruptcy. With well over $10 billion in assets, AmTrust Bank is fairly large. The circumstances surrounding its failure are unusual…

This comes via the Wall Street Journal: Highway-construction companies around the country, having completed the mostly small projects paid for by the federal economic-stimulus package, are starting to see their business run aground, an…

Below is another great article from John Mauldin via his weekly newsletter, this time featuring John Hussman who is talking double dip and depression. My last post shows I am very concerned about this scenario – which I see as likely - and…

From the site News from 1930: National City Bank notes epidemic of bank failures, and that “processes of deflation operate in a vicious circle” but is nevertheless optimistic: “obviously this sort of thing has to come to an end some…

Below are three videos from a talk at the 2009 Economics of Peace Conference in Sonoma, CA, where James Galbraith talks about the Hyman Minsky concept of the instability of stability. This concept is fundamental to the behavioural…

This story is on the front page of Business Week: Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is struggling to save his city from fiscal calamity. Unemployment is at a record 28% and rising, while home prices have plunged 39% since 2007. The 66-year-old…

This is a post I just wrote over at Yves Smith’s site Naked Capitalism in response to a reader request. Marshall Auerback has already written a reply as well and I will post this later today. A reader at Naked Capitalism asked us to…

Hat tip Rolfe Winkler.