February 24, 2009
Apparently you could have slept through the last two days of stock market history. Good to know we only have to pay attention on alternate days now. Here is the S&P 500 over the last two days. This is probably...
Thoughtful and important post from my friend Gregor Macdonald on the inevitability of debt repudiation in the U.S. It can be de facto or explicit -- through inflation or a declining tax base -- but Gregor's point that U.S. debt...
It's time for the latest monthly missives from Bill Gross and Paul McCulley at bond mega-firm Pimco. Both are interesting pieces, as usual, so give them a read: Bill Gross pretends to testify to congress, and knocks down nationalization Paul...
From yesterday's Daily Show, Jon Stewart pointing out that "money from Democrats can still be exchanged for goods and services". Some Republican governors are saying they don't like the stimulus (but will take the money anyway).Note: Not safe for work....
I would think that we could agree in a non-partisan way that the following snippet from NYT columnist David Brooks today represents a species of delusion: All in all, I can see why the markets are nervous and dropping. And...
Some fairly staggering numbers on the mess that is commercial real estate in Beijing: 500 million square feet of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn't...
How nasty is the current recession/depression? So bad that people are curtailing their consumption of alcoholic beverages. When a downturn is so bad that people are cutting back on booze you know something epochal is going on. [via Bloomberg]...
Nice chart from American Banker comparing various U.S. banks' tangible common equity capital ratio (a highly conservative measure of solvency) and Tier 1 capital ratio (a marginally less conservative but regulator-favored approach). As you can see, the differences are fairly...
Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street (Wired) A Meek Ending For Mighty Unit That Gutted AIG (WashingtonPost) Luncheon with FedEx Corp. President & CEO Frederick Smith (C-Span) As It Falters, Eastern Europe Raises Risks (NYTimes) Road...
