Nikkei recovers as investors pile back in http://t.co/LKy6fFcMDL
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United States Channel: Latest Posts
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United States
Morgan Stanley’s writedowns bring us to a cool $1 trillion
` Morgan Stanley released a dismal earnings report one day after Goldman’s. Obviously this is shaping up to a be a very bad quarter for financial institutions. Morgan’s $2.2 billion loss was certainly less than Goldman’s but very large nevertheless. And it brought us to $1 trillion in losses by global financial institutions since the [...]
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Finance & Markets
The Big Three and TARP: What Happened to Democracy?
What’s happened to democracy? GM and Chrysler say they desperately need money to avoid bankruptcy in the next few weeks. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson now says the Big Three “will get the money as quickly as we can prudently do it.”
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Finance & Markets
Rio Tinto: all kinds of trouble
`Just months ago, Rio Tinto was a behemoth swaggering from the huge run up in commodity prices. This is a company that had revenue of nearly $30 billion and net income of nearly $8 billion in 2007. It was worth over $160 billion by May as the commodities boom took shape. -
Finance & Markets
Perhaps the most useful thing you will read today…
“The risks of risk management“, BBC, 5 December 2008 — Hat tip on this to Brad Delong. Excerpt (reformatted):
You are in the audience at a small, intimate theatre, watching a magic show. The magician hands a pack of cards to a random member of the audience, asks him to check that it is an ordinary pack, and to give it a shuffle. The magician turns to another member of the audience and asks her to name a card at random. “Ace of Hearts,” she says.
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Finance & Markets
Thinking about averages
In a recent macroblog post [http://macroblog.typepad.com/macroblog/2008/12/the-recession-i.html], Dave Altig described the employment patterns in the current U.S. recession relative to the average recessionary experience. Dave made some observations from the data supported, in part, by a similar chart to the one produced below:
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Finance & Markets
Stepping In Front of the Steamroller
Markets have suddenly become moderately interesting again (though they remain bum-clenchingly illiquid), helped along by yesterday’s Fed announcement of quasi-ZIRP and quasi-quantitative easing.
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Finance & Markets
Are Green Jobs Bogus?
`Tim Haab at Environmental Economics weighs in on the question of whether green fiscal policy can create jobs: -
Finance & Markets
The Tenth-Ranked Quotation of 2008?
`The Yale Book of Quotations seeks to fulfill a useful service: It tabulates well-known sound-bites, but tries to get the exact quote and citation right, which is rare. (P.T. Barnum in fact never said “There is a sucker born every minute.” Humphrey Bogart never said “Play it again Sam.” Richard Nixon never said “But it would be wrong.” Etc.) The editor compiles an annual list of Top Ten Quotes of the Year. This week he released the list for 2008. Number 1 for example is “I can see Russia from my house,” carefully attributed to the Tina Fey parody rather than what Sarah Palin actually said. -
Finance & Markets
“A depression is for capitalism like a good, cold douche.”
`Most of the comments on the FM site by folks discussing Austrian economics show little understanding of Austrian economics. Here is an anecdote by a famous economist who met one of the great founders of Austrian theory. A telling anecdote, revealing much about the difference between the Keynesian and Austrian schools of economics — and why Keynesians dominate in public policy decision-making. And yes, the title is relevant to the post. -
Finance & Markets
Normalcy is Just a Few Bold Policy Steps Away
The current financial crisis was built in steps, but it took a dramatic turn for the worse during the third quarter of 2008 after the Lehman-AIG events. Since then, gloom has taken over. Economic agents of all sorts, from creditors to consumers, are frozen waiting for some sense of normalcy to be restored. The main purpose of this article is to make the case that normalcy is much closer —just a few bold policy steps away— than is the conventional wisdom.
