Gearing Up for Obama to Address Congress, Economy

Image via Wikipedia

Everyone is looking for a plan. The market is looking for any sort of clarity. Obama looks like he is throwing test messages (shit) against the people (the wall) to see what sticks. Don’t get me wrong–this is a hard problem and a tough job to steer out of this mess. But, between [...]


Morning Worldwide Central Bank Rate Cuts Trump News

The rush of morning economic news is all about the extraordinary, coordinated rate cut by most of the world central banks. This coordinated 0.5 percent rate cut is a growing indication of a global economy that is comprised of increasingly coupled independent national economies.
The world markets over the last several days have been an eerie [...]


Good Quick Analysis on UK Bank Bailout

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis does a quick, down and dirty analysis of the UK banking bailout. Bailout plan sends European indices and US futures into a predictable downward trend.
Mish predicts coordinated US Fed, Bank of England, European Central Bank rate action.


Investors Short Banks, Fed Stuck in Neutral, Mortgage Rates Crimp Home Buyers, Banks Tighten Credit

Bloomberg: Michael Price, shorts Citigroup and Wachovia
Price, 57, is selling short both stocks even after Citigroup, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, tumbled 33 percent this year and Wachovia, the fourth-largest, lost 52 percent. In a short sale, investors borrow shares and sell them on the expectation they can be purchased at a lower price [...]


August 4, 2008

The effects of a steadily weakening economy is now pulling prime, or good credit, mortgages into a potential second wave of home mortgage defaults. The combination of slower than expected economic growth, continued drops in home prices, growing unemployment rate that lifted to a four year high in July.
NY Times-Housing Lenders Fear Bigger Wave [...]


August 1, 2008

Wall Street Journal-Ahead of the Tape

Economists expect to see the jobless rate tick higher to 5.6% and payrolls shrink by 65,000 jobs, the seventh consecutive month of losses.
What isn’t so clear is how much pain will reach beyond the sectors most brutalized during this downturn: manufacturing, construction and retail. That threesome has shed 658,200 jobs [...]