February, 2009 archive
More Dustbiters (Updated: Another One Bites the Dust) 0
FDIC still on its average of three a week (in one form or another–merger, liquidation, seizure). Repubican Economic Theory continues to bear fruit.
Loup City, Neb.-based Sherman County Bank, Cape Coral, Fla.-based Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast, Pittsfield, Ill.-based Corn Belt Bank and Trust Company, and Beaverton, Ore.-based Pinnacle Bank were closed by regulators Friday, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures for 2009 to 13 and 38 total since the start of the credit crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
Nebraska has not seen a bank failure since 1990, according to the FDIC. However, Riverside Bank follows Fla.-based Ocala National Bank, which failed on Jan. 30. Prior to Corn Belt Bank, the last Illinois bank to fail was National Bank of Commerce on Jan. 16.
“If a Thing Isn’t Worth Saying, You Sing It” 0
Up against the Wall Street II 0
Margaret Carlson on Bloomberg dot com asks a question (emphasis added):
I would very much like to locate Employee 697. If 696 people who helped destroy the company still got at least $1 million each for their effort, imagine what No. 697 must have done NOT to get it.
Killed by the iPod? 0
Muzak goes Chapter 11. I don’t know whether they are responsible for the sound track in my local super market, but, if they are, good riddance.
Via Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, where there’s an interesting capsule history of the firm.
Just the Time to Venture into Retail 0
The Once and Final Word on Judd Gregg for Commerce Secretary 0
Three weeks from now, no one outside of his home state, politics, the news business, or political blogistan will remember his name.
Up against the Wall Street 0
Time nominates the 25 persons most responsible for the crash. (They include the “American Consumer” as one, rather than as 300 million. Guess that would have messed up their “top 25” thing.)
Via the Huffington Post.
Financial Analysis 0
TerranceDC takes a stab at figuring out what’s wrong with Wall Street.
Alexander Graham Bell’s Worst Nightmare 0
Brendan makes a phone call.
Ignoring the Obvious: Press Coverage Dept. 0
I recently listened to this segment of Talk of the Nation (follow the link to listen to it):
One of the callers referred to Deborah Howell’s November 9, 2008, column, in which she analyzed the Washington Post’s campaign coverage (follow the link for the full column, which includes a lot of numbers and covers much more than the op-ed page):
The caller posited that, since the number of stories favorable to Obama was greater than the number of stories favorable to McCain, the press therefore wanted Obama to win. (Read Ms. Howell’s column; the caller put words in her mouth. The caller’s word-twisting was positively Rovian and, laudably, the panel politely called him on it.)
His reasoning is purebred invalid syllogism:
The panel on the show took issue with the caller’s assertion of favoritism on two points:
- Reporting a more favorable story doesn’t mean that the reporter is rooting for the subject of the story.
- Reporting a more favorable story may reflect who’s in the lead; winners tend to get better coverage than losers.
Note that, in the U. S. press, George Washington gets more favorable coverage than King George III of England. Left unsaid in the discussion:
Reporting a more favorable story, whether it’s a story about a football team, a restaurant, a television show, or a political candidate, may reflect nothing more than that the subject of that story is better than the competition.
Furrfu.
Is It Really February in Delaware? 2
Temperature in the high 50 Fahrenheits, mostly sunny, 45 mph wind gusts.
When All You Believe in Is Hammers 0
Everything is a nail.
Of course, there is other stuff in the tool kit besides a hammer. There’re pliers and wrenches and Allen keys and screwdrivers and splining tools and all sorts of neat things.
But Republicans don’t believe in them. Therefore those implements do not exist.
Harold Meyerson on the Republican Party’s belief that cutting taxes for the rich is The One True Faith (emphasis added):
Home Prices: Sinking to Where They Belong? (Updated) 0
Note that almost half of these sales were “distressed“:
The NAR said distressed sales, which includes foreclosures, accounted for 45 percent of transactions in that quarter, dragging down the national median price of existing single-family homes to $180,100.
I suspect the sellers were also distressed, worrying whether their vehicles are big enough for their families to live in.
Prices may be close to bottoming out; the early 2000s was apparently when the just-busted bubble started to inflate (see graph here).
Criswell predicts that prices are going to stay flat for a long time. Persons fearing pay cuts and unemployment do not buy houses. Or cars. Or washing machines. Or anything they don’t have to have.
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
Atrios thinks that housing prices will slide significantly further.
He’s got a Ph. D. in economics and has taught in some of the finest universities in the world.
I don’t have a Ph. D. and have taught persons how to carry trays in dining cars.
We will see if my “it’s not rocket science” contention holds up.
If it doesn’t I will forget about this update.
Must Be That Pesky UAW Again 0
Yeah, I know it’s absurd. No UAW in either Japan or the consumer electronics industry.
So too are Republican attempts to blame their mess on honest working persons.
Bushonomics: The Hangover 0
No wonder “first-time claims” dipped a bit. The pool of employed persons subject to being fired keeps getting smaller.
The number of initial claims in the week ending Feb. 7 fell 8,000 to 623,000, a level that is 84% higher than the same period in the prior year. The four-week average of initial claims rose 24,000 to 607,500 — the highest level since November 1982 and up 76% from the prior year. The four-week average for claims draws the attention of economists and investors because it smoothes out distortions caused by bad weather, strikes or the timing of holidays.
Take the Day Off 0
Without pay.
I do not envy the governors, mayors, county supervisors, and their colleagues faced with balancing budgets because the bottom has fallen out of the economy, therefore cutting their revenues off at the knees.
Furloughs are among many options, including reductions in employee benefits, large cuts or possible tax increases listed as measures that could be used to put the state in the black. But Gov. Jack Markell has noted that, when laying off 1,000 state employees would save just $50 million, simple furloughs would make a minimal dent in the money gap.
A typical work year contains 260 or 261 work days.
Twenty-six unpaid days = 10% pay cut.