United States

Weekly jobless claims rose in the U.S. to the highest level since 1982, signaling a further deterioration in the U.S. employment market. The seasonally-adjusted number for initial claims was 573,000 while the real number was an eye-popping…

Yesterday, I mentioned an article I caught in the German newspaper Die Welt which outlined the desire for VW and Daimler Benz to receive bailouts in response to the state aid being offered to American car makers. I warned that a competitve…

It seems that the bailouts are now turning into a "Beggar Thy Neighbor" policy of aid for specific sectors of the global economy. First, it was finance as the banks were savaged by massive writedowns to their property and derivative…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released this month's unemployment report and the data were grim.  The unemployment rate rose to 6.7%, while the economy shed 533,000 jobs - the largest decline since 1974.  The result was widely expected…

Quite a punchy speech from the Fed Chairman, especially the conclusion, which suggests big support ahead for housing: In this regard, reducing the number of preventable foreclosures would not only help families stay in their homes, it…

U.S. Jobless claims are out again and the data are mixed. The past week saw a drop in seasonally-adjusted claims from 530,000 to 509,000. Meanwhile, continuing claims rose on a seasonally-adjusted basis from 3,962,000 to 4,087,000. While…

The Treasury Department is considering a plan to halt the slide in home prices that would lower mortgage rates using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The plan could reduce rates for newly issued loans to as low as 4.5%. Slowly, but surely, the…

The U.S. Dollar has been holding up quite nicely during this credit crisis. In fact, it rallied significantly from deeply oversold levels against the Euro and British Pound (remember Dollar-Euro at 1.60 and Dollar-Pound at 2.10?). However,…

My very first post on this blog was in March and it was titled "The Economy Is Definitely In Recession." Back then, this seemed like a stretch for a lot of people, but today the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which makes the…

Japan’s policy makers generally procrastinated considerably in terms of implementing any kind of stimulative measures, as well as prematurely reversing the benign impact of policies which had some earlier success. In terms of monetary…