The Global Recession

"Follow the money!" - Deep Throat

News Stories (August 2010)
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Related Pages
Index

I have been keeping loose track of financial matters on the Terror War page, but with the 2008 Crash, there got to be too much finance intermixed there.

Lots of people are now saying the Great Recession is over and there are some indications in that direction. However, there has been no financial reform, the unemployment numbers are still uncomfortably high and what happened to those toxic assets? There is also the little matter of Peak Everything.

News Stories (August 2010)

2010/08/31: EurActiv: Financial taxes top EU economy ministers' agenda
2010/08/31: CBC: Canada's economic growth slows in Q2 [Q2 GDP 0.5%]
2010/08/30: US: Criteria for assessing economic models
2010/08/30: NewDeal2.0: The Real Lesson from the Great Depression: Fiscal Policy Works!
The Fiscal Times
2010/08/29: Telegraph(UK): Backlash over China curb on metal exports
China's draconian export curbs on rare earth minerals needed by the rest of the world for frontier technologies is escalating into a serious diplomatic and trade clash with the United States and other leading powers.
2010/08/31: BRitholtz: Psychological Stages of a RE Bubble Market
2010/08/31: NakedCapitalism: What to Make of Banks Hesitance to Lend to Environmentally Dubious Projects
2010/08/31: NakedCapitalism: William Black: Theoclassical Law and Economics Makes the Law an Ass
2010/08/31: NakedCapitalism: NYT Story on Wall Street’s Fallout with Obama Misses the Dead Bodies
2010/08/31: NakedCapitalism: Why Are NACA’s Innovative Mortgage Modification Marathons Below the Radar?
2010/08/31: CalcRisk: FDIC Q2 Banking Profile: 829 Problem Banks
2010/08/31: CalcRisk: Case-Shiller: Home Price indices increase in June
2010/08/31: CalcRisk: Europe Bond Yields
2010/08/30: EconView: Robert Barro's Questionable Claim
2010/08/30: SeattlePI: (cartoon - Horsey) Home sales spooked
2010/08/25: PRWatch: Will Perpetrators of Financial Crimes Ever Face Justice?
2010/08/29: RReich: Warning: Why Cheaper Money Won’t Mean More Jobs
2010/08/29: NewsWeek: Obama’s Old Deal -- Why the 44th president is no FDR - and the economy is still in the doldrums
2010/08/29: BBerg: China Defends Control of Rare Earth Exports as Move to Protect Environment
2010/08/29: TBP: The Age of Mammon
2010/08/30: EconView: Did I Hear that Right? You Want to Raise Interest Rates?
2010/08/30: EconView: Paul Krugman: It’s Witch-Hunt Season -- "This is going to be very, very ugly"
2010/08/30: NakedCapitalism: Scott Fullwiler: Modern Monetary Theory - A Primer on the Operational Realities of the Monetary System
2010/08/30: NakedCapitalism: Why Germany’s Rebound Is Not Such Good News
2010/08/30: CalcRisk: Regional Fed Manufacturing Surveys and the ISM PMI
2010/08/30: CalcRisk: Dallas Fed: Texas Manufacturing Activity Still Weak in August
2010/08/29: BRitholtz: Blocking Stimulus for Political Gains?
2010/08/29: EconView: "America’s Leaders are Letting the Country Down" -- It falls to the Fed to fuel recovery, by Clive Crook
2010/08/29: CalcRisk: Foreclosures: Movin' on up!
2010/08/29: NakedCapitalism: Japan’s Experience Suggests Quantitative Easing Helps Financial Institutions, Not Real Economy
2010/08/29: NakedCapitalism: Why Basel III is No Magic Bullet
2010/08/29: CalcRisk: "Muddling through ... the prescription of the moment"
2010/08/28: BRitholtz: (cartoon - Darkow) The Expendables
2010/08/28: NYT: Why We Need a Second Stimulus
2010/08/28: CalcRisk: [Tom] Petruno: Time to let home prices fall?
2010/08/28: CCurrents: US Slashes Estimate Of Second-Quarter Economic Growth
2010/08/27: CCurrents: America Facing Depression And Bankruptcy
2010/08/27: CJR: ProPublica and Planet Money Find the Keys to the Kingdom
2010/08/27: JCA: John Williams on the Revised GDP Number
2010/08/28: ProPublica: A Crib Sheet on Wall Street’s Self-Dealing Money Machine
2010/08/26: ProPublica: Banks’ Self-Dealing Super-Charged Financial Crisis
2010/08/27: BBC: Japan's struggle with deflation worsens as prices fall
2010/08/27: AlterNet: Unreal: Banks' Created Fake Demand to Boost Profits and Yearly Bonuses
2010/08/28: AlterNet: Hightower: Wall Street Bankers Pull Off Another Regulatory Heist
2010/08/27: NYT:PK: Inflation And Interest Dynamics
2010/08/27: NYT:EconoMix: When Value Judgments Masquerade as Science
2010/08/27: NYT:PK: Invisible Cavalry To The Rescue!
2010/08/27: RReich: The Two Stories of This Terrible Economy, Yet Obama and the Dems Won’t Tell Theirs
2010/08/28: EconView: Government Expenditures and GDP Growth in the US and Germany
2010/08/28: CalcRisk: Unofficial Problem Bank List increases to 840 institutions
2010/08/27: RWER: The relation between oil prices and economic activity
2010/08/27: EconView: Fed Watch: Driving Me Crazy
2010/08/27: CalcRisk: U.S. Births decline in 2009
2010/08/27: CBC: U.S. growth [GDP] slows to 1.6% in Q2
2010/08/26: AlterNet: America, Land of Paradox: The Country That Launched Corporate Globalization Should Be First to End It
2010/08/24: Salon:HTWW: Dodd vs. Warren shows that government is broken -- The senator says the professor can't be confirmed, so Obama, with two majorities, should compromise
2010/08/26: NYT: This Is Not a Recovery
What will Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, say in his big speech Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyo.? Will he hint at new steps to boost the economy? Stay tuned. But we can safely predict what he and other officials will say about where we are right now: that the economy is continuing to recover, albeit more slowly than they would like. Unfortunately, that’s not true: this isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.
2010/08/26: BaselineScenario: Fiscal Austerity and "Third World America"
2010/08/27: NakedCapitalism: More Debate on QE
2010/08/27: CalcRisk: Analysis: Bernanke paves the way for QE2
2010/08/27: CalcRisk: Bernanke: The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy
2010/08/27: CalcRisk: Q2 real GDP revised down to 1.6% annualized growth rate
2010/08/26: CalcRisk: Summary, Fannie-Freddie "Autopsy", and European Bond Spreads
2010/08/26: CalcRisk: Are lenders "procrastinating" on foreclosures?
2010/08/26: CalcRisk: CoreLogic: 11 Million U.S. Properties with Negative Equity in Q2
2010/08/26: CalcRisk: MBA Q2 2010: 14.42% of Mortgage Loans Delinquent or in Foreclosure
2010/08/20: HuffPo: When Wall Street Rules, We Get Wall Street Rules
2010/08/25: AlterNet: Treasury Makes Shocking Admission: Program for Struggling Homeowners Just a Ploy to Enrich Big Banks
2010/08/25: AlterNet: Co-Chair of Obama's 'Fiscal Commission' Calls Social Security a 'Milk Cow with 310 Million Tits'
2010/08/26: AlterNet: Despite Fresh Rhetoric About Saving U.S. Manufacturing, Obama Is Quietly Pushing Failed Bush Trade Policies
2010/08/25: NYT:PK: There Are Bubbles, And Then There Are Bubbles
2010/08/26: CEPR:BtP: The Plunge inJuly New Home Sales Was Not Due to the Expiration of the Tax Credit
2010/08/25: BBerg: Roubini Says Q3 Growth in U.S. to Be `Well Below' 1%
2010/08/26: BRitholtz: Major Money Managers Representing Retail Investors Speaking Out Against HFT by Joseph Saluzzi & Sal L. Arnuk
2010/08/26: EconView: "Inequality and the High-End Bush Tax Cuts"
2010/08/26: NakedCapitalism: Fears of Regime Change in New York
2010/08/26: NakedCapitalism: Regulators (and New York Times) Discover Bank Use of "Customer" Trades to Place Bets
2010/08/26: NakedCapitalism: Satyajit Das: Cross Dressing in Political Economy
2010/08/26: NakedCapitalism: Corps’ Hissy Fit Works: SEC Move for Corporate Democracy Weakened
2010/08/26: CalcRisk: Kansas City Fed: Manufacturing activity slowed in August
2010/08/26: CalcRisk: Weekly initial unemployment claims decline, 4-week average highest since Nov 2009
2010/08/25: EconView: A Wake-Up Call for Policymakers? [July new home sales]
2010/08/25: CalcRisk: ATA: "Truck freight tonnage has essentially gone sideways since April 2010"
2010/08/25: CalcRisk: Regional Fed Manufacturing Surveys and the ISM PMI
2010/08/25: BBC: US new home sales in sharp fall
New homes sales in the US fell sharply in July, according to official data, adding to concerns over the weakness of the US economic recovery. The annualised rate of new homes sales fell 12.4% in July to a seasonally adjusted rate of 276,600 a year, the US Commerce Department said. That makes it the slowest rate since records began in 1963.
2010/08/25: BBC: Irish credit rating is downgraded [from AA to AA-]
2010/08/25: CBC: U.S. new home sales drop 12.4% -- Average prices down 6% in a month
2010/08/24: RReich: Tax Jujitsu: Why Democrats Should Propose a "People’s Tax Cut"
2010/08/24: AHarless: Do Umbrellas Cause Rain?
2010/08/25: BRitholtz: A Brief History of the Mortgage Interest Deduction
2010/08/25: EconView: Identifying Cyclical vs. Structural Unemployment
2010/08/25: NakedCapitalism: Mirabile Dictu: Wall Street Journal Sees Parallel Between Commercial and Individual "Strategic Default" When Solvent Commercial Property Owners Quit Paying?
2010/08/25: NakedCapitalism: Earth to Bill Gross: We Chickens Know You Are The Fox Minding the Henhouse
2010/08/25: NakedCapitalism: Corporate Hissy Fit Over New Proxy Rules Reveals "Shareholder Rule" to be a Canard
2010/08/25: CalcRisk: Home Sales: Distressing Gap
2010/08/25: CalcRisk: New Home Sales decline to Record Low in July
2010/08/25: CalcRisk: MBA: Mortgage refinance activity increases, Purchase activity flat
2010/08/24: EconView: CBO: Estimated Impact of the Stimulus Package
2010/08/24: NakedCapitalism: Andrew Horowitz: Existing Home Sales Horrendous --- So, Why Are Housing Stocks Moving Higher?
2010/08/24: CalcRisk: S&P Cuts Ireland's Rating, Outlook Negative
2010/08/24: CalcRisk: CBO: Stimulus raised GDP 1.7% to 4.5% in Q2
2010/08/24: CalcRisk: Richmond Fed: Manufacturing Growth Continued to Ease in August
2010/08/24: BBC: Japanese yen hits 15-year dollar high
2010/08/24: CBC: U.S. home sales fall to 15-year low -- Monthly drop the biggest in 42 years
Sales in the U.S. of previously occupied homes plunged in July by 27 per cent from the month earlier, to their lowest level in 15 years. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million.
2010/08/23: OpenEcon: No room for reading
I was talking to some English PhD students today, and when the conversation turned to economics they were dismayed to learn that no one in "top" economics departments ever read Marx, much less understood any of his theories. Then I was caught off-guard when I was asked, "so what thinkers do most students in economics programs read?" The student just assumed that we must read someone. But as far as I can tell, and the answer I gave, was "none." The training of economists in the "top" programs does not entail any reading of books. This should not be news to anyone familiar with the current state of mainstream economics, which has become a branch of mathematics. But the English PhD students’ surprised reactions to that reality reminded me of how incredibly bizarre this current situation is.
2010/08/23: Guardian(UK): Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's future
If the US government continues to underwrite the mortgage market, then the one thing it should not do is pad banks' profits
2010/08/23: NYT:PK: Making It Up
2010/08/23: FT:MWE: The conservative counter-revolution
The conservative economic counter-revolution associated with the names of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher began some three decades ago. The Great Recession almost certainly marks its end. What follows will be something different, though how different it will is still unclear. This is a good opportunity to assess the broad economic consequences of that revolution.
2010/08/23: HuffPo: Two Top Investigators Leave Financial Crisis Commission
2010/08/24: Bilbo: Fiscal austerity is undermining growth -- the evidence is mounting
2010/08/23: CEPR:BtP: Washington Post Invents Debate Over "Free Trade"
2010/08/24: BRitholtz: Exisiting Home Sales Plummet 27.2%
2010/08/24: BRitholtz: Celebs’ & Billionaires’ Economic Warnings?
2010/08/24: BRitholtz: Inflation, Not Deflation, Mr. Bernanke by Andy Xie
2010/08/24: EconView: "It is Time for Bernanke to Stake Out a Public Position" -- Tim Duy ... [on] ... dissent within the Fed...
2010/08/24: NakedCapitalism: Japan: All Talk, No Action on Levitating Yen
2010/08/24: NakedCapitalism: Banks Enabling Fraud Against Retail Customers
2010/08/24: CalcRisk: Existing Home Inventory decreases 1.9% Year-over-Year
2010/08/24: CalcRisk: Existing Home Sales lowest since 1996, 12.5 months of supply
2010/08/23: NakedCapitalism: Wallace C. Turbeville: Derivatives Clearing -- At the End of the Beginning
2010/08/23: CalcRisk: Lawler: Existing Home Sales: "Consensus" vs. Likely
2010/08/23: AlterNet: The Economy Is Getting Worse and Worse -- And No One's Doing a Thing About It
2010/08/22: EconBrowser: Long-term perspective on the stock market
Bilbo
2010/08/23: Bilbo: Income distribution matters for effective fiscal policy
2010/08/22: Slate: They Still Don't Get It -- Some people on Wall Street, and at the Wall Street Journal, speak as if the financial crisis never happened
2010/08/23: EconView: Paul Krugman: Now That’s Rich
Our "dysfunctional and corrupt political culture" may extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy even though there's no good reason to do so
2010/08/23: NakedCapitalism: Credit Card Companies Jack Up Rates Despite Flagging Economy, Super Low Funding Costs
2010/08/23: NakedCapitalism: MIchael Pettis on the High Odds of Trade War
2010/08/23: CalcRisk: DOT: Vehicle Miles driven increase in June
2010/08/23: CalcRisk: Chicago Fed: Economic activity rebounded in July
2010/08/22: BRitholtz: Is Gold a Shadow Currency?
2010/08/22: NakedCapitalism: Does Income Inequality Help Cause Financial Crises?
2010/08/21: RWER: Should we bury macroeconomists at Ground Zero?
2010/08/21: CalcRisk: Greece Unemployment Rate continues to Rise
2010/08/21: CalcRisk: Unofficial Problem Bank List increases to 817 institutions
2010/08/21: CalcRisk: CEO: No need to invest right now
2010/08/22: Guardian(UK): China's spectacular ascendance begins to reshape the world economy
2010/08/19: DerSpiegel: On the Way Down -- The Erosion of America's Middle Class
While America's super-rich congratulate themselves on donating billions to charity, the rest of the country is worse off than ever. Long-term unemployment is rising and millions of Americans are struggling to survive. The gap between rich and poor is wider than ever and the middle class is disappearing.
2010/08/18: DerSpiegel: Entering a Death Spiral? Tensions Rise in Greece as Austerity Measures Backfire
The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece's problems are dragging down the country's economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling and unemployment has hit an unbelievable 70 percent in some places. Frustrated workers are threatening to strike back.
2010/08/20: RReich: Corporate Rotten Eggs
2010/08/20: CEPR:BtP: The Washington Post Reports Businesses Tell Them That Stimulus Will Boost Hiring, but Doesn't Realize It
2010/08/20: RawStory: Economic forecaster: ‘Greatest Depression’ coming
Collapse of middle class means there's no fuel for recovery, Gerald Celente argues The US economic recovery in recent quarters is little more than a "cover-up" and the world is headed for a "Greatest Depression," complete with social unrest and class warfare, says a renowned economic forecaster [Gerald Celente, head of the Trends Research Institute]
2010/08/21: NakedCapitalism: The Perils of Changes of Global Leadership
2010/08/21: CalcRisk: Restaurants in "survival mode"
2010/08/20: BRitholtz: Succinct Summation of Week’s Events by Peter Boockvar
2010/08/20: CalcRisk: Bank Failures #115 to #118: California
2010/08/20: CalcRisk: Bank Failure #114: ShoreBank, Chicago, Illinois
2010/08/20: CalcRisk: Bank Failures #111 to #113: Florida and Virginia
2010/08/19: AlterNet: Could a Legal Technicality Prevent Banks from the Right to Foreclose on 62 Million Homes?
2010/08/20: AlterNet: Whether the Economy Is in a 'Double Dip' or in Stagnation, It's Clear We're in a Downward Spiral
[...]
It is a very sad feeling, one that I had during the aftermath of Katrina, when the government reveals that it does not intend to respond to a crisis. It is a cold, dehumanized feeling. The tolerance of 9.5 percent unemployment, which is in reality a much larger number (say 15 percent) than the official numbers, is a symptom of dysfunction.
2010/08/19: NYT: Appeasing the Bond Gods
2010/08/19: Telegraph(UK): Greek crisis refuses to go away
The European Commission has approved the next 9bn euro (£7.4bn) tranche of loans for Greece but the underlying economy continues to deteriorate as Greek banks suffer a record loss of deposits and output contracts at a quickening pace.
2010/08/20: BRitholtz: Seeking the Truth -- Or Obscuring It?
2010/08/20: NakedCapitalism: Could Millions of Homes Be Foreclosure Proof?
A story by Ellen Brown gives a good summary of how the widespread use of a national electronic mortgage registry called MERS, designed to save mortgage securitizers the cost and bother of recording mortgages at the local courthouse, is backfiring spectacularly.
2010/08/20: NakedCapitalism: Why Treasury Bonds Do Not Fund Our Federal Deficit
2010/08/20: CalcRisk: State Unemployment Rates: Generally unchanged in July
2010/08/19: EconView: Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Increase to 500,000
2010/08/19: EconView: Stiglitz: Needed: a New Economic Paradigm
Joseph Stiglitz says adding bells and whistles to the current vintage of macroeconomic models will not fix what is wrong with them, "Nothing less than a paradigm shift will do"
2010/08/19: NakedCapitalism: Rajiv Sethi: On Broken Trades and Bailouts
2010/08/19: CalcRisk: Moody's: Commercial Real Estate Price Index declines 4% in June
2010/08/19: CalcRisk: Census Bureau: 24.1 million homeowners had primary mortgage rates above 6% in 2009
2010/08/19: Guardian(UK): Markets split on economic outlook
Shares are soaring but the bond markets are defiantly pessimistic -- and it will soon be time for investors to cast their vote on where they think the economy is heading
2010/08/19: Guardian(UK): US unemployment figures increase fears of double-dip recession
2010/08/17: McClatchyDC: Struggling economy keeps bankruptcy courts busy
Bankruptcy courts are busier than they've been in years, as distressed families and businesses increasingly seek respite from the financial storm. Nationwide, bankruptcy filings rose 20 percent in the 12-month period ending June 30, according to records released Tuesday. The 1.57 million cases filed in federal courts were more than at any time since Congress tightened bankruptcy rules in 2005.
2010/08/19: CBC: U.S. initial jobless claims hit 500,000
2010/08/19: CBC: Leading index suggests slowing economy
Statistics Canada's index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 per cent in July, down from 0.7 per cent in June.
2010/08/18: AlterNet: Michael Moore: Profits Are Way Up at General Motors ... So Why Aren't They Hiring?
F&E: Finance And Economics
2010/08/18: F&E: Gold manipulation: Central banks are now in deep trouble
2010/08/18: JCA: Unenlightened Self-Interest: Deficit Hawk Down On Tax Cuts and Financial Reform
2010/08/18: Reuters:FS: The Treasury-bubble meme
2010/08/17: BRitholtz: 2008 Bailout Counter-Factual
2010/08/19: NakedCapitalism: Questioning the "The Authorities Did a Great Job in the Crisis" Meme
2010/08/19: NakedCapitalism: Amar Bhide on the Stalinization of Finance
2010/08/19: CalcRisk: Philly Fed Index shows contraction in August, first time since July 2009
2010/08/19: CalcRisk: Weekly initial unemployment claims at 500,000, highest since November 2009
2010/08/15: CCurrents: 40 Bizarre Statistics That Reveal The Horrifying Truth About The Collapse Of The U.S. Economy
2010/08/18: Telegraph(UK): US oil speculators fined for $100-a-barrel "vanity trade"
The US commodities regulator has imposed a $12m (£7.7m) fine on oil traders responsible for speculatively pushing the price of oil above the $100-a-barrel mark for the first time in January 2008. The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined a former division of ConAgra Foods for its involvement in the so-called "vanity trade" which was responsible for purposefully pushing up the price on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). The levy is intended to send a clear message that the regulator is intent on finding and fining those individuals and companies which were responsible for pushing oil to $147-a-barrel by July 2008.
2010/08/16: Interfluidity: Monetary policy for the 21st century
2010/08/18: BRitholtz: Do US Bonds Resemble Dot Com Stocks?
2010/08/18: EconView: "Policymakers Need to Re-Learn Their Keynes"
Robert Skidelsky says deficit hawks are "scraping the bottom of the intellectual barrel"
2010/08/18: NakedCapitalism: So Much for Workers in India Being Cheaper
2010/08/18: NakedCapitalism: Boston Fed’s New Excuse for Missing the Housing Bubble: NoneOfUscouddanode
2010/08/18: NakedCapitalism: Are Bank Stocks Such a Good Buy?
2010/08/18: CalcRisk: Refinance Activity, Mortgage Rates and Effective Rate
2010/08/18: CalcRisk: AIA: Architecture Billings Index shows contraction in July
2010/08/18: CalcRisk: MBA: Mortgage refinance activity increases sharply, Purchase activity declines
2010/08/18: CalcRisk: NY Fed: Total Household Debt down 6.4% from the peak in 2008
2010/08/17: EconView: "Is the Unemployment Problem Cyclical or Structural?"
2010/08/17: EconView: Mel Brooks and the Bankers
2010/08/17: NakedCapitalism: Marshall Auerback: News Flash -- China Reduces US Treasury Holdings, World Does Not Come To an End
2010/08/17: CalcRisk: Housing Starts and the Unemployment Rate
2010/08/17: CalcRisk: Regional Reports: Home Sales fell sharply in July
2010/08/17: CBC: U.S. economic trend still uncertain
2010/08/16: CtE: Political traps for Keynesians
2010/08/16: HousingWire: Homebuyer Demand All But a 'Standstill': Altos Research
2010/08/17: BRitholtz: 2008 Bailout Counter-Factual
2010/08/17: CalcRisk: Q2: Quarterly Housing Starts by Purpose
2010/08/17: CalcRisk: Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization increase in July
2010/08/17: CalcRisk: Single Family Housing Starts decline in July
2010/08/16: BRitholtz: Guess Who Benefits Most From Foreclosure Abatements?
2010/08/16: CalcRisk: Sovereign Debt Part 5D: European Banks, What if Things Go Really Badly?
2010/08/15: AlterNet: Fund the Damn Jobs: Deficit Fear-mongering Only Helps the Rich
2010/08/16: CalcRisk: CoreLogic: House Prices flat in June
2010/08/16: CalcRisk: NY Fed: Manufacturing Conditions improve "modestly" in August
2010/08/14: RReich: Forget a Double Dip. We’re Still in One Long Big Dipper.
2010/08/15: BRitholtz: Why Are Exchanges For-Profits?
2010/08/13: PS: Gordon Gekko Reborn by Nouriel Roubini
2010/08/14: EconView: Roubini: Gordon Gekko Reborn
2010/08/14: CalcRisk: Why do I expect the unemployment rate to increase?
2010/08/14: CalcRisk: Unofficial Problem Bank List increases to 813 institutions
2010/08/13: DerSpiegel: GDP Surges 2.2 Percent -- Greatest Economic Boom Since German Reunification
Germany just posted its strongest quarter of economic growth since reunification in 1990. During the second quarter, an exports boom, increased consumption and government stimulus helped the country chalk up growth of 2.2 percent.
2010/08/14: AlterNet: Meet Dylan Ratigan, That Guy on MSNBC Who Can Talk a Mean Streak About the Scam Artists on Wall St.
2010/08/14: AlterNet: Our Only Existing Jobs Program Is the Military -- an Insane Way to Keep Americans Employed
2010/08/13: TCP: Going for the Permanent Semi-Slump
2010/08/14: BLT: FDIC, SEC Announce Open-Door Rulemaking For Wall Street Reform Law
2010/08/14: BRitholtz: Stocks vs Bonds
2010/08/14: CalcRisk: Negative News Flow
2010/08/13: EconView: Insurance is Not Welfare
2010/08/13: NakedCapitalism: Representatives Convey and Kaptur Call on Geithner, Fannie, FHFA to Stop Efforts to Pursue Strategic Defaulters
2010/08/13: CalcRisk: Bank Failure #110: Palos Bank and Trust Company, Palos Heights, Illinois
2010/08/13: CalcRisk: Double Dip Debate
2010/08/13: EUO: Brussels urges austerity, despite return to growth
2010/08/13: BBC: The German economy grew by 2.2% in the three months to the end of June, its fastest quarterly growth in more than 20 years, official figures show
2010/08/13: CBC: [Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank president Thomas] Hoenig calls low rates a 'dangerous gamble' -- Fed member says bank risks severe recession
2010/08/12: AlterNet:SE: Wells Fargo Overdraft Scam Makes Elizabeth Warren More Important Than Ever
LSE: The Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality
2010/08/13: Economist:FE: All fall down [currencies]
2010/08/11: USAToday: Feds rethink policies that encourage home ownership
2010/08/13: WaPo: Elizabeth Warren, likely to head new consumer agency, provokes strong feelings
2010/08/11: NewDeal2.0: Welcome to the World of the "New Normal", UK Style
2010/08/13: BRitholtz: A Closer Look at the Bush Tax Cuts
2010/08/13: BRitholtz: The Future of Finance
2010/08/13: EconView: (cartoon - ?) This Isn't Funny Anymore
2010/08/13: NakedCapitalism: Hidden Income in China Boosts Income of Top 10%, Fueling Speculation, Social Strains
2010/08/13: NakedCapitalism: Richard Alford: What Kind of Science Should Economics Be When It Grows Up?
2010/08/13: NakedCapitalism: How (Mis)Use of Client Assets Pumped Up Shadow Banking System
2010/08/13: CalcRisk: Reuters: University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment increases slightly in August
2010/08/13: CalcRisk: Retail Sales increase 0.4% in July
2010/08/13: CalcRisk: Krugman: Paralysis at the Fed
2010/08/12: BRitholtz: Fannie Freddie NYT OpEds
2010/08/12: CalcRisk: More Europe: Greek Recession, Irish and Spanish Worries
2010/08/12: CBC: U.S. home foreclosures surge -- Rise 9% from June
2010/08/11: EPI: For four out of five unemployed workers, there are no jobs
2010/08/11: RReich: America’s Biggest Jobs Program -- the U.S. Military
2010/08/11: CreditSlips: Student Loans Now Greater Than Credit Card Debt
2010/08/12: EconView: Renminbi-Yen-Dollar Collision Course
2010/08/12: EconView: Trade Deficit Explodes
2010/08/12: NakedCapitalism: The Fed’s Fallacious "QE Lite" Logic
2010/08/12: NakedCapitalism: Steve Keen: Bank Profits a sign of economic sickness, not health
2010/08/12: CalcRisk: Freddie Mac: 30 Year Mortgages Rates fall to series record low
2010/08/12: CalcRisk: Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase [to 484k], Highest since February
2010/08/11: RWER: This Economy Stinks, Yes It Does
2010/08/11: BRitholtz: Quote of the Day: Economic Recovery
2010/08/11: NakedCapitalism: More Extend and Pretend: HUD Offers $1 Billion of Subprime Teaser Loans
2010/08/11: CalcRisk: NY Times: Borrowers refuse to pay home equity loans
2010/08/11: CalcRisk: NY Fed Plans to Buy $18 billion in Treasuries over the next month
2010/08/11: CBC: Trade deficit widens to $1.1B
Canadian exports fell 2.5 per cent in June, led by a drop in industrial goods and materials, while imports decreased 1.2 per cent because of a significant decline in energy products. Consequently, Canada's trade deficit with the world widened to $1.1 billion in June from $695 million in May.
2010/08/10: AlterNet: Tax Cuts for the Rich Are Pure Theft
2010/08/11: BRitholtz: BofA Buyback Disputes = $11.2B
2010/08/11: BRitholtz: Road to Nowhere? by Invictus
2010/08/11: BRitholtz: Coming Soon: Bank CEO Perp Walks, Jail Time
2010/08/11: NakedCapitalism: Pimco’s Crescenzi Gets Award for Artless Candor
2010/08/11: NakedCapitalism: Price is Not Value, and Other Reasons Metrics Mislead
2010/08/11: CalcRisk: BLS: Low Labor Turnover in June
2010/08/11: CalcRisk: Trade Deficit increases sharply in June
2010/08/10: RWER: 5 suggested common themes for an Economics that takes its subject matter seriously
2010/08/10: HousingWire: "Slam Dunk Stimulus" -- The Natural History of a Rumor
2010/08/10: BRitholtz: FOMC: QE1.5 Begins
2010/08/10: EconView: The FOMC Decides on a Minor Course Correction
2010/08/10: NakedCapitalism: Fed Signals Continued Willingness to Throw Money at Flagging Economy
2010/08/10: NakedCapitalism: Jack Sparrow: Strip Mining the U.S. Economy
2010/08/10: CalcRisk: "Quantitative Neutrality" -- People are struggling with a name for the Fed's action today...
2010/08/10: CalcRisk: FOMC Statement: Weaker Economy, to Reinvest
2010/08/10: Guardian(UK): Federal Reserve resorts to 'QE lite' in face of slowing US recovery
2010/08/10: AlterNet: Elizabeth Warren Uncovered What the Govt. Did to 'Rescue' AIG, and It Ain't Pretty
2010/08/09: NYT: The Horror Show
The employment situation in the United States is much worse than even the dismal numbers from last week’s jobless report would indicate. The nation is facing a full-blown employment crisis and policy makers are not responding with anything like the sense of urgency that is needed.
2010/08/10: BRitholtz: CPI, CRB Do Not Disprove Deflation Thesis
2010/08/10: NakedCapitalism: NYT Muffs Merrill/Magnetar Piece (And Why is No One Investigating the Related Bonus Fraud?) by Yves Smith & Tom Adams
2010/08/10: NakedCapitalism: Widening Chinese Trade Surplus Increases Pressure to Intervene
2010/08/10: NakedCapitalism: Are Those Horrible, Sometimes Unionized, State and Local Employees Overpaid? Apparently Not
2010/08/10: CalcRisk: "Buy and Bail" Again
2010/08/10: CalcRisk: NFIB: Small Business Optimism Declines
2010/08/09: BRitholtz: Corporate Taxes as Percentage of GDP
2010/08/09: EconView: "Future Recession Risks"
2010/08/09: NakedCapitalism: Warren Turbeville: Why Clearninghouses Are a Maginot Line Against Systemic Risk
2010/08/09: CalcRisk: REO Inventory including private-label RMBS
2010/08/09: CalcRisk: Rail Traffic increases 4.1% in July compared to July 2009
2010/08/09: NYT: Goldman's Derivatives Were 25 - 35 Percent Of '09 Revenue: Report
Goldman Sachs Group Inc has informed the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) that 25 percent to 35 percent of its revenue was derived from the derivatives businesses, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a person familiar with the situation. The figures were part of a Goldman response to a request by the FCIC to disclose information about its derivatives holdings and operations, the Journal said.
2010/08/09: TP:WR: [Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris] Dodd (D-CT): It’s Not Worth A Fight To Get Elizabeth Warren Confirmed As CFPB Director
2010/08/05: SST: The Old and The New - Richard Sale
2010/08/08: AlterNet: The New Aristocrats of Finance Pose a Serious Threat to Our Democratic Way of Life
2010/08/08: NYT:PK: Advising Like It’s 1999
2010/08/08: RReich: Greenspan, Rubin, and Herbert Hoover
2010/08/08: TBP: The Mother of All Bubbles
2010/08/09: EconView: Fed Watch: Waiting for Nothing?
2010/08/09: EconView: Paul Krugman: America Goes Dark -- The consequences of "three decades of antigovernment rhetoric" are evident
2010/08/09: NakedCapitalism: "Technically Incompetent" NY Fed Examiner of Biggest Banks Pre Crisis Promoted for Blowing Up the Economy
2010/08/09: CalcRisk: Fannie, Freddie, FHA REO Inventory Increases 13% in Q2 from Q1 2010
2010/08/09: CalcRisk: Freddie Mac: $4.7 billion Loss, REO Inventory increases 79% YoY
2010/08/09: CalcRisk: East of San Francisco: 20% Unemployment, House Prices off Sharply
2010/08/08: CDreams: Are We In a Recession or Not?
2010/08/08: EconBrowser: Current economic conditions
2010/08/08: CalcRisk: Hamilton: Current economic conditions
2010/08/07: CalcRisk: Duration of Unemployment
2010/08/07: CalcRisk: Unofficial Problem Bank list increases to 811 institutions
2010/08/04: MRC: (cartoon - Roberts) Red
2010/08/06: TP:WR: Republicans Mindlessly Obstruct Federal Reserve Board Nominee Amidst A Weak Economy
2010/08/07: AlterNet: Foreclosure Mills: America's Newest Housing Nightmare
2010/08/07: BRitholtz: Drama at the Fed meeting? by David Kotok
2010/08/07: NakedCapitalism: Did Gretchen Morgenson Get Spun on Denver Public School Financing Story?
2010/08/07: CalcRisk: CoStar: Commercial Real Estate Prices decline sharply in June
2010/08/06: EconView: The Employment Report
2010/08/06: NakedCapitalism: Goldman Tells FCIC 25% to 35% of Its Revenues Come From Derivatives
2010/08/06: NakedCapitalism: Ugly Non-Farm Payrolls Revisions
2010/08/06: CalcRisk: Bank Failure #109: Ravenswood Bank, Chicago, Illinois
2010/08/06: WaPo: Christina Romer, chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, to resign/A>
2010/08/06: AlterNet: Crazy Economists Are Still Defending The Wall Street Bailout As The Recession Gets Worse
2010/08/03: Caixin: Fear Empty Flats in China's Property Bubble
2010/08/06: GlobalPost: Telling Swiss secrets: A banker's betrayal
2010/08/05: NYT: The Flimflam Man
2010/08/06: BRitholtz: Origins of the Flash Crash
2010/08/06: NakedCapitalism: On Investor Distrust in the Markets
2010/08/06: NakedCapitalism: More Debunking of the "Freddie and Fannie Caused the Crisis" Meme
2010/08/06: CalcRisk: Employment Report: Why the different payroll numbers?
2010/08/06: CalcRisk: Employment-Population Ratio, Part Time Workers, Unemployed over 26 Weeks
2010/08/06: CalcRisk: July Employment Report: 12K Jobs ex-Census, 9.5% Unemployment Rate
2010/08/05: EBR: The Death Zone
2010/08/05: CalcRisk: Fannie Mae: REO Inventory doubles, expected to increase "significantly"
2010/08/05: CalcRisk: 2nd Half Slowdown Update
2010/08/02: TPMCafe: Reagan OMB Chief: GOP Responsible for Entire US Economic Mess
2010/08/04: NewDeal2.0: The Real Reason Banks Aren’t Lending
2010/08/05: AlterNet: Deficit Scare Talk Is a Big Scam by Corporations and Right-Wingers; The Problem Is Not Enough Good-Paying Jobs
2010/08/05: BBC: The Bank of England has voted to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5% amid concerns over the strength of the economic recovery
2010/08/04: Nanex: Crop Circle of the Day - Quote Stuffing and Strange Sequences
2010/08/04: BDL: Extremely Rough: A Note on Bullard's Interpretation in his "Seven Faces of 'The Peril'" Paper of Benhabib et al. (2001).
2010/08/04: RReich: The Enthusiasm Gap and You
A friend whom I’ll call David raised a ton of money for Democrats in 2008 and now tells me they can go to hell. He’s furious about the no-strings bailout of Wall Street, the absence of a public option in health reform, financial reform that doesn’t cap the size of banks or reinstate the Glass-Steagall wall between investment and commercial banking, and a stimulus that was too small to do much good but big enough to give Republicans a campaign issue. He’s also upset about tens of thousands of additional troops being sent to Afghanistan, a watered-down cap-and-trade bill that’s going nowhere, and no Employee Free Choice Act. David won’t raise a penny this fall and doubts he’ll even vote. “I busted my chops getting them elected, and they caved,” he fumes. “They’re all lily-livered wimps, and Obama has the backbone of a worm.” Tea Partiers are getting all the press. But the anger on the left, including much of the Democratic base, is almost as intense.
2010/08/05: JCA: The Road to Serfdom Is Lawlessness: Inside Goldman Sachs
2010/08/04: FT:Alphaville: IMF blueprint for a global currency -- yes really
2010/08/05: BRitholtz: Quote Stuffing and Strange Sequences
2010/08/05: BRitholtz: Initial Claims remain stubbornly high [at 479k]
2010/08/05: NakedCapitalism: Marshall Auerback: The Real Reason Banks Aren’t Lending
2010/08/05: NakedCapitalism: Fannie and Freddie Continue to Rely on Foreclosure Mills Despite Evidence of Fraud
2010/08/05: CalcRisk: Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase to 479,000
2010/08/04: RWER: Comment of the month (July): Why wasn’t there a Great Depression before the Great Depression?
2010/08/04: CalcRisk: China's Stress Tests: 60% Decline in House Prices
2010/08/04: CalcRisk: BEA: July light vehicle sales rate 11.5 million SAAR
2010/06/: Sage:P&S: (pdf & html) Winner-Take-All Politics: Public Policy, Political Organization, and the Precipitous Rise of Top Incomes in the United States by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson
2010/08/03: Rabble: Just 15,000 families win 'The American Dream'
2010/08/02: USAToday: $1.1 trillion pours out of low-yielding money market funds
2010/08/02: TRB: The Money Market Piggybank is Shattered
2010/08/03: DerSpiegel: Risk to Global Economy -- China's Real Estate Bubble Threatens to Burst
2010/08/02: DerSpiegel: Finding Swimming Pools with Google Earth -- Greek Government Hauls in Billions in Back Taxes
2010/08/04: AlterNet: Jim Hightower: Who Do We Want? Elizabeth Warren! When Do We Want Her? Now!
2010/08/03: PS: An Age of Diminished Expectations? by Kenneth Rogoff
2010/08/03: RasmussenReports: 67% of Political Class Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction, 84% of Mainstream Disagrees
2010/08/04: CEPR:BtP: The German Unemployment Story is Better than the NYT Suggests
2010/08/04: BRitholtz: House Prices Declining from Peaks Around the World
2010/08/04: BRitholtz: Understanding Context: The Housing Boom & Bust
2010/08/04: NakedCapitalism: Andy Xie on China’s Empty Apartments
2010/08/04: NakedCapitalism: Deflation Alert: Employers Cutting Pay, Consumer Growth Index Points to Downturn
2010/08/04: CalcRisk: ISM Non-Manufacturing Index shows expansion in July
2010/08/04: CalcRisk: ADP: Private Employment increases 42,000 in July
2010/08/03: NakedCapitalism: Small Business Sentiment Hits New Low
2010/08/03: CalcRisk: Personal Bankruptcy Filings up 9% in July
2010/08/03: CalcRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales 12.1 Million SAAR in July
2010/08/03: CalcRisk: Pending and Existing Home Sales
2010/08/03: BRitholtz: S&P500: 50% Crash Retracement -- for the 5th time since the market bottomed, we have hit 50% retracement...
2010/08/03: NakedCapitalism: More Incoherent Remarks From China on Its Dollar Holdings
2010/08/03: NakedCapitalism: "Do the Rich Even Need the Rest of America Anymore?"
2010/08/03: CalcRisk: General Motors: Sales up sharply compared to July 2009
2010/08/03: CalcRisk: Pending Home fall to record series low in June
2010/08/03: CalcRisk: Personal Income, Spending flat in June
2010/08/02: CalcRisk: Krugman: "Why Is Deflation Bad?"
2010/08/02: Guardian(UK): The US economy is not yet on the road to recovery
2010/08/02: BBC: Former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, has warned that the US economy could be heading towards a double-dip recession
2010/08/01: AlterNet: Elizabeth Warren: My Mission Is to Restore America's Great Middle Class
2010/08/01: EconBrowser: Options for monetary stimulus
2010/08/02: VoxEU: What do we know about the causes of the crisis? by Andrew K. Rose & Mark M. Spiegel
The global crisis has left many calling for early warning systems to prompt authorities into action before it’s too late. This column argues that such a system is restricted by our understanding of what caused the crisis in the first place. Indeed, it shows that popular explanations for the current crisis have little to no ability to predict past crises.
2010/08/01: NYT: Defining Prosperity Down
I’m starting to have a sick feeling about prospects for American workers -- but not, or not entirely, for the reasons you might think. Yes, growth is slowing, and the odds are that unemployment will rise, not fall, in the months ahead. That’s bad. But what’s worse is the growing evidence that our governing elite just doesn’t care — that a once-unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal.
2010/08/01: TBP: John Paulson will be wrong this time
2010/08/02: Bilbo: The old line back to free market ideology still intact
The US economy is showing signs of slowing as the fiscal stimulus is withdrawn and the spending contractions of the state and local government increasingly undermine the injections from the federal sphere. The recent US National Accounts demonstrate that things are looking very gloomy there at present. In the last week some notable former and current policy makers have come out in favour of austerity though. Some of these notables contributed to the problem in the first place through their criminal neglect of the economy. Others remain in positions of power and help design the policy response. A common thread can be found in their positions though. A blind faith in the market which links them intellectually to the erroneous views espoused by Milton Friedman. His influence remains a dominant presence in the policy debate. That is nothing short of a tragedy.
2010/08/01: Telegraph(UK): Hot political summer as China throttles rare metal supply and claims South China Sea
2010/08/02: NakedCapitalism: Getting Ugly on the Commercial Real Estate Front
2010/08/02: CalcRisk: Private Construction Spending declines in June
2010/08/02: CalcRisk: ISM Manufacturing Index declines in July
2010/08/01: BRitholtz: Stockman: How the GOP Destroyed the U.S. Economy
2010/08/01: EconView: "Vulgar Keynesianism Robed in the Ideological Vestments of the Prosperous Classes"...it's entertaining ... to watch Republicans fighting with Republicans
2010/08/01: NakedCapitalism: Knives Out for Elizabeth Warren
2010/08/01: NakedCapitalism: Debunking Bush Tax Cut Myths
2010/08/01: CalcRisk: Sovereign Debt Part 5C. Some Policy Options, Good and Bad

Last modified August 31, 2010