Archive for April, 2009

Just when we were starting to feel better about the economy and were bringing out our forecasts of and end to the recession by the end of the year, consumers seem to have withdrawn again.  That’s bad news, and if the March data is a sign of things to come our slump may last longer… »

It’s early in the day, so there is plenty of time for the usual brinkmanship to play out, but the rejection of the latest government offer to the company’s creditors increases the odds that Chrysler will enter bankruptcy quickly.  Possibly as soon as later today or tomorrow.
The creditors group consists of two sub-groups.  One is… »

While I am riled up about bankers: I came across a couple of stories to pass on to you that illustrate just how far we have to go before we can declare ourselves back in control of our banking system.  Right now the inmates are very definitely running the asylum.

Here’s a fun little story from… »

Wow.  The IMF really knows how to annoy me.  I know they’re well meaning, by and large, and are trying to provide super analysis of our current crisis so that politicians everywhere have ample background against which to develop their plans.
But.
Do they have to let me know just how much this will all cost?  They… »

Surely no one was surprised by the release this morning of the first quarter GDP results.  The sharp contraction that began lat the end of 2007 continued unabated with the economy shrinking at an annual rate of 6.1%.  This was the first time in three decades that we have experienced back to back quarterly declines… »

I have just managed to spend some time reading through the IMF’s recent Global Financial Stability Report. And yes it’s tedious at over 200 pages in length. Suffice to say that this is not the stuff young children should be allowed to read: the numbers are staggering.
Martin Wolf at the Financial Times… »

I reported last week that there was a fist fight going on between Chrysler’s bondholders and the government. Back then – doesn’t it seem ages ago? – the creditors were holding out for more than the paltry $1.1 billion that the government wanted to give them. This is a long way down from… »