United States

The Senate has now passed the bailout bill Economic Patriot Act that the Bush Administration had a heavy hand in crafting. This bill, while better than nothing, is unlikely to alleviate for long the acute problems the financial markets are…

The ISM Manufacturing survey, a widely-followed gauge of manufacturing activity in the United States, plunged in September from a near-recession reading of 49.9 in August to the deep recessionary level of 43.5. This shockingly steep fall…

Everyone's dancing and cheering now that the bailout has been rejected. So, as Ice-T used to say, "Bust the cork on the Moët!" (image via Flickr).The market's up 500 points and all is well and swell. The guys over at Lombard Street Research…

The headlines about home prices are pretty dire, showing a record plunge in home prices of 16.3% over last year. In reality, it's not all doom and gloom. So, let's dig behind the headlines about the S&P/Case-Shiller Index released…

Connecticut-based Clayton Homes, now owned by Berkshire Hathaway and called Clayton Holdings, (not to be confused with Clayton Homes, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway)*, has warned that Subprime and Alt-A delinquencies in the U.S. are…

The NY Times has a story on how yesterday's bailout deal failed. This is an insider's tale with blow by blow detail. It is a fascinating view into how the U.S. conducts government policy. Below is a snippet from the post and a link to the…

I caught this quote via Political Wire. It reminds me of Paul Wolfowiz's quote for why the Bush Administration used WMDs as the rationale for war in Iraq.Some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use…

Economists had expected the durable goods report for August 2008 to be weak, but the report showing durable goods orders down 4.5% was much weaker than expected.While I do believe that the United States is in recession and the durable goods…

U.S. jobless claims registered an increase to 493,000, bringing the widely followed 4-week average to 462,500, its highest level since just after 9/11. Recently, the jobless claims numbers have been creeping up indicating the labor market…

If you hadn't been following it, credit markets are still seized up -- even more than when Paulson first presented his bailout plan the Economic Patriot Act for Congressional approval. The fact of the matter is Paulson has shown…