Ending The Happy Hour
Regular readers know that I am a "deflationist", i.e. I believe that the current Great Recession is already characterized by asset and credit deflation, which will likely deepen and widen further before the global economy rebounds. Needless to say, th...
Six Month Sigmas
Today, I put my quant hat on (a small one, to be sure) and go trawling in stockmarket data, specifically the historical performance of S&P 500 over six months. The reason I chose six months for my yardstick is because shares bottomed out in March ...
Where The Debt Lies (..and Happy Columbus Day Mr. Krugman)
Apropos of Columbus Day and before the main topic, a comment on Mr. Krugman's editorial on monetary policy, appearing in today's NY Times ("Misguided Monetary Mentalities"). Please read it before proceeding.When Christopher Columbus sailed west from t...
Mr. Bernanke’s Class Warfare
It's been a while since I looked at the Fed's balance sheet. Here is an update.The Fed has been supplying a massive amount of credit to the financial system in order to forestall the effects of the credit collapse. Since the end of 2007 credit exten...
Debt-O-Nations
After yesterday's post on American national debt and the value of the dollar, a reader asked to see debt/GDP ratios for other countries as well. Here is a table from the IMF (Int'l Monetary Fund) - click to enlarge. Government Debt As % of GDPJapan h...
Sic Transit Gloria Dollarii Mundi
I have not published a chart of US public debt in some time, having mostly concentrated on household and corporate debt with its various alphabet-soup permutations ( CDOs, CLOs, CDSs, etc.).However, after almost two years of financial sector bailouts (...
Solar
A reader commented recently that solar energy requirements and/or subsidies for homes in the USA is a no-go because not enough sunshine falls on the country. I looked into it and the following map should enlighten us (pun intended, click to enlarge).M...
Your Deficit Feathers At Work
Government finances are in a parlous state. The 12-month running budget deficit has grown to an astonishing 1.5 trillion dollars, a number so large in the normal context of "money" that it makes dollar signs entirely meaningless. We might as well ca...
Lost At Sea
A curious thing happened on the way to the market. While global share prices lift and float, nicely above the lows registered last March, something else entirely is happening at sea.First, global share prices. The MSCI World Index of developed countr...
Food Stamps At Record
The number of people on food stamps reached a record 35.1 million in June 2009, up 21% from last year and +33% from the end of 2006. That's almost 12% of the entire population of the United States, the highest percentage since the food stamp program...
Words vs. Deeds
Watch what I'm doing, not what I'm saying.. This common sense advice is very timely right now, since there is a world of difference between what the Federal Reserve is saying and what it is actually doing.Mr. Bernanke said yesterday that the economy is...
Stuffing Sam
In financial market parlance "getting stuffed" is being left with a losing position in a trade because the counterparty to the transaction claims to not recognize it (also known as DK, or Don't Know). It's equivalent to someone dropping their trash on...
