Archive for February, 2009

I know I gave you this link before, but I think this news warrants its own entry. GM reported a horrible fourth quarter loss. Here’s the New York Times link again: G.M. Loses $9.6 Billion; Wagoner Back in Washington
The loss is bad enough, but the truly eye catching number is the use of… »

Whoops. A couple of days ago I wrote that there were the first signs of the economy reaching the bottom of its decline. The data yesterday and today seem to indicate that the decline is still in full swing. So much for optimism.
New home sales are now at all time lows: an… »

Well is he? Everyone has piled on him already after that awful rebuttal speech he gave. So what’s left to yell about? The point that Gail Collins makes in today’s New York Times in the following paragraph:
“Louisiana has gotten $130 billion in post-Katrina aid. How is it that the stars of the… »

OK. It seems as if the objective of the so called stress tests being applied by the Treasury department to our failed banks doesn’t include a whole lot of stress. Paul Krugman both reports and laments here:Not much stress – Paul Krugman Blog
So what’s the deal?
Bernanke, in his testimony before Congress today, toed… »

Paul Krugman has a nice chart worth passing along. You can see it at his New York Times Blog here: Highly unlikely?
The quick point to make is that house prices still appear to be at least 15% too high, and given the high levels of unsold inventory, the continued decline in prices… »

Amid all the gloom there are a few signs that the economy’s downward spiral may be ending and that a slow recovery later this year is in the offing. It will soon be Springtime after all, so how far away can the warmer and better days be?
Take the credit markets. Three month LIBOR,… »

This will be very quick: all the hand wringing going on within the Republican party concerning the cost of the stimulus plan is, frankly, absurd. The sudden conversion to fiscal conservatism is political grandstanding of the first order. All any half way competent commentator has to do is to look at the impact… »