Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Earlier today I wrote a post featuring comments by Marc Faber as I like to do from time to time. In this particular case Dr. Faber was waxing prosaically about an eventual bankruptcy of the U.S. government. His money quote was: “Next station is when the U.S. government […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Why is everyone saying consumer credit is falling? It’s not. But, everywhere I look, everybody is saying it is. I would like to be true to the data and not just take the government’s seasonally-adjusted numbers at face value. Judge for yourself. Here’s the data: This is what […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns In my last post, I presented you with a bunch of data on debt levels broken down by sector of the economy (see “A brief look at the Asset-Based Economy at economic turns”). I found it interesting that a secular pattern seemed to be at play when looking […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns The following is my translation of a much-discussed article that appeared in Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet at the weekend. This information was being withheld from the public and leaked at an inopportune moment. Note that the Swedish government has secretly been preparing the banks for financial Armageddon, encouraging […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Marshall Auerback sent me a link to a recent Simon Johnson missive about Goldman Sachs. I had already seen and liked this article, but his e-mail prompted me to write this post. My question is: Why is Goldman a bank holding company? Goldman becomes a bank The reason […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. This is a re-post of an article I wrote last night at Credit Writedowns where I stressed a U.S.-centric view of Faber’s comments that the Fed is a money printer. However, here I have re-dubbed the post to reflect Faber’s comments, which are more comprehensive, in effect pointing […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Janet Tavakoli was a recent guest on “On the Edge with Max Keiser” and had some troubling things to say about the state of the present U.S. financial system. She believes the liquidity pumped into the system will not be sufficient to reflate the economy because of over-leveraged […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Yves’ posting will be at a low ebb over the next week (post-book trauma!). So, I will be covering some of the bases in the interim. Expect at least a post per weekday through next week. Below is one I wrote on the employment numbers which came in […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns This is a post I wrote earlier to day at Credit Writedowns. I just noticed that Albert Edwards and David Rosenberg are saying similar things. See the FT Alphaville post on their comments here. As for me, for the last few months, I have been casting around looking […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns I have to admit to hyping the debate now swirling about protectionism. I believe that tariffs are not a very good solution to a trade problem as they are likely to result in retaliation and/or escalation. Moreover, they end up protecting small groups at the expense of higher […]
Read more...The following is a submission by reader Kalpa who writes Financial News Express. While traveling this past weekend, I picked up a real estate booklet in the charming middle-of-the-U.S.A. town which I found myself in. Most interesting was the inside cover page note to prospective home buyers: First–time homebuyers who would otherwise qualify for the […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns At issue here is the news that the Obama Administration dropped plans to force financial institutions to offer “plain vanilla” financial products that are simple enough for consumers to understand. My headline is editorial enough on this issue. So, rather than editorialize this latest announcement, I’ll quote from […]
Read more...The following is a submission from Naked Capitalism contributor Swedish Lex. While some observers of U.S. politics lament the lack of progress in reforming the country’s financial system, the European financial industry has abruptly awoken to the EU’s new resolve re-shape the continent’s financial system. How far and how fast the EU intends to go […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Let’s say I run a company. For the sake of argument, we’ll call it a shoe store in New York City. I am making $100,000 net per year now. But, I look around me and see huge opportunity for growth. So I go to my bank and ask […]
Read more...Below is a guest contribution by reader Michael Dokupil. Michael points out that ratings agencies and banks are incented to support a market in so-called toxic assets rated triple-A because of a strange regulatory arbitrage. Basel II rules allow a bank to keep much less capital on hand to support AAA assets than is necessary […]
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