United States

In the US, the Republican National Convention has begun and as we prepare to watch the presumptive Republican nominee for President, it bears noting a little background into his character and past.One reputable source of background material…

"Prime looks terrible." Those were the words of Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase when he had his earnings call for Q2. And, indeed, prime is terrible. New data out from Hope Now shows that there are now more prime mortgage delinquencies…

Last month, Hank Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, was waxing prosaically about covered bonds and their benefits to mortgage markets. From his comments, one gets the impression he sees this a potential solution to preventing a future…

U.S. jobless claims for the past week were down to 425,000 from 435,000 last week and as high as 457,000 three weeks ago. While seasonality is big part of the data in August, this is a comforting change from the recent…

When it comes to residential property in the US, banks were overzealous on the way up and now they are overzealous on the way down. You have probably heard that banks are cutting HELOCs (home equity lines of credit) like mad. Borrowers,…

Here's an interesting statistic from the OCRegister in California. What are the twenty wealthiest cities in the United States? Pleasanton, CA tops the list with a median household income of $113,345. See the chart below for the other 19. I…

The S&P/Case-Shiller housing index is out for prices for June 2008. So, it's that time of the month again -- let's play the Case-Shiller time machine game. Basically, prices in the U.S. housing market have been falling for about two…

As the Democratic and Republican Conventions have begun, most Americans are going to get political overload as they are inundated with a media blitz by the U.S. presidential candidates and the inane trivialities of our media-driven…

Since June, bond yields have fallen to the point where the U.S. government is getting paid to borrow money right across the entire yield curve. The 10-year is 3.8%, while inflation in the U.S. is 5.6% . What gives? This is either a flight…

U.S. jobless claims were down 12,000 this week to 430,000. However, the 4-week average increased to 445,750 and is now 125,750 higher than a year ago. Over the past 4 or 5 weeks, claims have spiked up in part due to the extension of…