Archive for the 'Economy' Category
A Growing Trend of Leaving America
July 31st, 2008Via: U.S. News and World Report: These Yankees, it turns out, are part of a larger American phenomenon: a wave of native-born citizens who are going abroad in search of new challenges, opportunities, and more congenial ways of life. In his recent book Bad Money, political commentator Kevin Phillips warns that an unprecedented number of […]
Fed Extends Emergency Loan Program for Wall Street
July 30th, 2008Via: AP: The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it is extending its emergency borrowing program to Wall Street firms and is taking other steps to ease a severe credit crunch that has hobbled the national economy. The Fed said the program, where investment houses can tap the central bank for a quick source of cash, will […]
Gold Sharply Lower, Under $900
July 30th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Many eggs. Many baskets. Via: MarketWatch: Gold futures fell sharply Wednesday to trade below $900 an ounce, as the dollar gained against other currencies after U.S. private-sector employment data showed a small increase in July. Gold for August delivery dropped $21 […]
FDIC Chairwoman: Bloggers “Out of Control,” Government Planning “Public Education Campaign”
July 30th, 2008Good luck with that. Via: San Francisco Business Times: The federal agency insuring bank deposits learned that it can’t afford to ignore the blogs following its seizure this month of IndyMac Bank, the largest bank failure since the 1980s. “The blogs were a bit out of control,” Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance […]
America’s House Price Time Bomb
July 30th, 2008Via: BBC: With the American housing market in its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Bush is expected to sign into law a massive new government intervention designed to slow the slide. The intervention would come as a little known quirk of US law threatens to drive down house prices even […]
S&P: Home Prices Drop by Record 15.8% in May
July 29th, 2008Via: AP: A closely watched housing index shows home prices fell by the steepest rate ever in May, as the housing slump continued to deepen nationwide. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index, released Tuesday, is off 15.8 percent for May compared with a year ago, a record decline since its inception in 2000. The narrower […]
MERRILL LYNCH DUMPING CDOs ONCE WORTH $30.6 BILLION FOR 22 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR
July 29th, 2008It looks like the race is on to try to mark this crap down to the point where some hedge fund buys it for pennies on the dollar. This race started when National Australia Bank bank tapped the mat and wrote off 90% of its U.S. AAA rated debt. When that happened, all the firms […]
Something or Nothing? Heavy Buying of Deep Out of the Money Call Options on Year End Gold
July 29th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. The last sentence of this piece should be the first sentence: “The option market is so black-boxed that you don’t even know why they are doing things.” So, just in case people get any ideas about running out to buy, sell […]
FEDERAL BUDGET DEFICIT FOR NEXT YEAR WILL APPROACH $490 BILLION
July 28th, 2008Via: AP: A Bush administration official said Monday the next administration will inherit a record federal budget deficit for next year that approaches $490 billion. The official said the deficit was being driven to record levels by the sagging economy and the stimulus payments being made to 130 million households in an effort to keep […]
Worried Banks Sharply Reduce Business Loans
July 28th, 2008Via: New York Times: Banks struggling to recover from multibillion-dollar losses on real estate are curtailing loans to American businesses, depriving even healthy companies of money for expansion and hiring. Two vital forms of credit used by companies — commercial and industrial loans from banks, and short-term “commercial paper” not backed by collateral — collectively […]
