As I write this, the markets in Japan are down nearly 10%. Several of the markets in Asia are closed in hope of shuttering themselves against the raging storm that they helped create. The Yen carry trade is at long last unwinding like the tightly wound spring it was. There is not enough money in […]
The Senate has passed a pork laden version of the Wall Street Welfare bill. Included for fun are provisions like this: SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN. (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b) is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub301 paragraph (C) and by […]
During late August and Early September, the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) began to collapse. The UK was eager to prevent this at all costs, as Halifax bank is a major player in the UK. In a deal brokered in part by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown himself, Loyds TSB would buy out the Halifax […]
Readers will recall that I have been against the massive, wasteful bailout bill that is still before congress. My position has been that the $700 Billion allocated cannot and will not fix the problem, if for no other reason than the problem is several orders of magnitude larger than that figure. This collapse is powered […]
I know there are plenty of folks (somewhere) who think that throwing $700 Billion down a deep debt hole was going to fix things. Let me help you out. Consider the graph below from Credit Suisse What this shows is that the first rate resets for the Subprime loans has mostly passed. So people who […]
So it seems that the biggest boondoggle of them all is in the pipeline to become law. Crooked high dollar investors are about to be forgiven of all they owe from bad debts, with the cost transfered to the common taxpayer. This is often referred to in economic circles as a “Moral Hazard“. Wikipedia puts […]
Sadly, there is no surprise that the current government is stalking it’s way towards the largest block grant to the wealthy ever. Word from the press that the congress has come up with a $700B plan to save the bank accounts of people who make more money in a day than many folks will see […]
When I first saw this graph in the sidebar of an article over at CNN Money, I kept looking for the United States and couldn’t find it. Then I looked a few inches above the rest of the countries. Ouch. Here’s what the article has to say: The dangers of leverage in a market where […]
OK, I really don’t care about the political preferences of the people how made this — it’s just brilliantly done: And where’d they get the high-quality capture of The Dark Knight? Hat tip to 2008 Central. ..bruce w..
Another perspective on the continuing crisis
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white; Robins will wear their feathery fire, Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war, not […]
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