United States Channel: Latest Posts
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Finance & Markets
No Gambling Please. This is the Stock Market
New research paper worth scanning on parallels between gambling and lottery-style stocks:
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The Wilder View
State and local governments expected to fire in bulk – mass layoffs will rise
November’s mass layoffs report – fifty or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed against an employer during a 5-week period, regardless of duration – was again grim. In bulk, mass job loss has gained some steam since September. Most of the mass layoffs are in the private sector (ex government), but rising state and local government budget deficits show the next shoe to drop in the labor market: government mass layoff events are expected to rise.
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Finance & Markets
The Value of Reliable Information
At the Free Exchange Greenspan Roundtable: -
Finance & Markets
How To Give Banks Confidence To Lend To Businesses
An important aspect of the economic crisis has been the drying up of credit that US banks normally extend to Main Street companies. Borrowing by businesses remains costly and difficult, with spreads between yields on corporate bonds and treasuries at extremely high levels. -
Finance & Markets
What Does Regulation Regulate?
`Here’s one of the simple truisms that gets lost in the political (i.e., bumper sticker) discussions. -
Finance & Markets
Federal Reserve balance sheet
Here I survey how we got here, where things currently stand, and what it all means.
Let me begin by reviewing some first principles of what the Fed is all about. How did the cash currently in your wallet get there? You withdrew it from an ATM, perhaps. But these wonderful contraptions don’t just give you the green stuff for free– you had to have deposits in the bank to be able to withdraw the cash. You can think of your account with your bank as credits you can use to get cash whenever you want it.
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Finance & Markets
Federal Commitments Total $5 Trillion
There is a rising tide of negativity about “bailout nation.” Public opinion has been in opposition each step of the way, most recently on the auto bridge loan, announced today and analyzed by us here. -
Finance & Markets
5,397 Semi-Interesting Words on Bernie Madoff
Tonight the NYT unleashed a monster of a Madoff story, with a 5,397-word scale-tipper on the proprietor of the current title-holder for World’s Largest Ponzi Scheme. Not to get all meta or anything, but the piece is not only longer than most Raymond Carver short stories, but it’s got eleven – 11!!! – reporters listed as having worked the piece. I am in awe at the NYT’s zealous flooding of the Madoff zone after the damage has been done.
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Finance & Markets
Blanchard: How to Emerge from the Crisis in 2009
Olivier Blanchard, chief economist of the IMF, says that if the right policies are followed, it’s possible to begin emerging from the crisis before the end of 2009: -
Finance & Markets
What can be learned from the banking crisis
Now that the countries of the west have agreed to a three-trillion dollar bailout programme to rescue their banking systems, it is time to look forward and to draw lessons from the crisis. To do this we must understand the causes of the crisis.
