March, 2009 archive
Move ‘Em Out, Cut ‘Em Up 0
Credit card accounts, the next frontier:
Canadian card losses in the third quarter rose to 3.1 percent of average balances, the seventh straight period of year- over-year increases, according to Moody’s. By comparison, U.S. card losses rose to 6.6 percent of balances.
In the U.S., consumer credit is shrinking faster than estimates and credit-card line reductions are the greatest on record, analyst Meredith Whitney of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC said yesterday in a note. About $2.7 trillion worth of credit lines will be removed from U.S. consumers due to the credit crisis and regulatory changes, 35 percent higher than her November estimate, Whitney said.
Return of Beyond the Palin, Job Fair Dept. 0
Openings on the Alaskan State Supreme Court:
(snip)
The governor has received more than two dozen unsolicited applications so far, and apparently wants as many as she can get. She’ll be accepting applications until Friday at which time she will release the names of the applicants. Elton’s replacement must be a Juneau Democrat and be approved by a majority of Democratic State Senators. Hey, Juneau Mudflatters, any takers?
First Nationalized Bank 0
Digby:
(snip)
Others much smarter than John McCain and I don’t understand why the Treasury Dept is so reluctant to nationalize these big banks after all this time and money has been spent propping them up to no apparent avail. But the fact is that nationalization is exactly what will happen if these banks are “allowed to fail.”
The campaign showed that McCain is one of the dumbest members of congress on economics and it’s clearer ever day that the world dodged a bullet with that one. It’s bad enough that we are all feel like our minds are swimming in quicksand when it comes to understanding this banking crisis. To have these “leaders” out there saying completely stupid things in the face of it is simply breathtaking.
Nowhere To Go, Nothing To Do 0
A soon-to-lawyer surveys the job market.
Case Study: Stock Crash Test Dummies 0
From the Toimes, in a review of House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, By William D. Cohan:
Nobody could have predicted. Except that lots of people did:
H/T Alison for the link.
“Mark to Market” 0
“Mark to market” is Wall Street double-talk for valuing assets at their current market value. A number of firms have diddled their balance sheets by not marking assets to market. Rather, they have been valuing them based on some arbitrary number from the past.
It should surprise no one that the arbitrary number from the past is almost always higher than the current market value of the assets. “Wall Street Analysts,” the high gods of the financial system, winked at this fraudulent less-that-full disclosure accounting technique because, well, the bubble kept expanding and commissions were plentiful.
Now that the bubble is kaput, Wall Streeters are suddenly concluding that falsifying misrepresenting fudging not updating the value of assets maybe isn’t such a good idea.
“The notion of having 98 percent opaque and 2 percent valued with clarity is something that by its very nature would make investors nervous,” said Robert Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates LLC, which oversees $30 billion in Newport Beach, California and owned 481,201 GE shares as of Dec. 31. “Having some clarity on what the other 98 percent is worth is valuable.”
“Tell me the story again, Daddy. You know, the one about how Big Bad Regulation stays Prince Free Hand of the Market.
“Daddy, I like fairy stories.”
What? You Mean a Law May Actually Mean What It Says? 0
Oh Noes.
Obama, in a two-page memorandum he issued yesterday, also preserved the right to rely on the so-called signing statements to make similar challenges.
(snip)
Obama said he would attach signing statements to legislation “only when it is appropriate to do so as a means of discharging my constitutional responsibilities.” He also laid out a set of principles that will govern his use of signing statements.
Signing statements should “not be used to suggest that the president will disregard statutory requirements on the basis of policy disagreements,” Obama said in the memorandum.
Aside: It does sort of look like a “have cake, eat it too” stance. On the other hand, as an ex-professor of Constitutional Law, Mr. Obama can be expected to have a clue or two about what “constitutional” means.
Nowhere To Go, Nothing To Do 0
The fruits of Republican Economic Theory (emphasis added):
A net -1% of firms expect to hire in the April through June period, down from 10% in the first quarter and 15% for the second quarter a year ago, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to Manpower’s quarterly survey. The previous low point was in 1982, when a net 1% of firms planned to hire in the third quarter.
Obedience School 0
The dogs bark to go out.
I open the door.
I say, “Don’t come back.”
They go out and they always come back.
What am I doing wrong?
“Tear Down This Myth” 0
The Philadelphia Shrinquier reviews Will Bunch’s book. An excerpt:
The hero-making has moved in other directions as well. Supporters have tried to add Reagan’s face to Mount Rushmore, while congressional Republicans backed the bill that renamed the former Washington National Airport “Reagan National.” Admirers have sought to put Reagan’s face on the dime. In California, Bunch reports, there is a Ronald Reagan Freeway near Reagan’s presidential library in Simi Valley. The state also now has Ronald Reagan elementary schools, a Ronald Reagan Park, Ronald Reagan government office buildings – even a Ronald Reagan Community Center.
Bunch has crafted an intelligent and relentlessly anti-Reagan polemic that succeeds in taking Reagan’s presidency down several pegs. Admirers have applauded Reagan for consistently sticking to his anti-big-government convictions, but Bunch shows that Reagan’s actual record is much more complicated than conservatives like to admit.
Full disclosure: Will Bunch writes for the Daily News, which is part of the company that owns the Shrinquier. Having read the Shrinquier for years and having my share of beefs about it, I am confident that that relationship did not influence the review.
Steeled for Failure 0
Michael Tomasky comments on the tiff between Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh:
(snip)
. . . today’s GOP consists, with those few exceptions, only of its conservative faction. Conservatives have been disciplined and strategic and have poured billions into political infrastructure-building over the years. When things were going their way, they didn’t have to worry about the lack of moderates. But now, things aren’t going their way. Unless Obama really, really blows it, the GOP is going to be the minority party for quite some time. It’s easy to see now why Limbaugh has such power, no? If the GOP had a moderate wing, he wouldn’t.
Bushonomics: The Hangover 0
When the lights go out, all over the world . . . .
In a paper for next Saturday’s meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors, the World Bank said its forecasts show the world’s economic growth will be at least 5 percentage points below potential. Global industrial production by the middle of 2009 could be as much as 15% lower than 2008 levels.
Love the Headline 0
Headline:
Some banks try to escape TARP trap
Excerpt:
However, analysts say it will still take years, not months, for big banks to extricate themselves from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
More accurate headline:
Clowns trapped in clown car; regret designing it
Furrfu.
Swiftly Fly the Days 0
Jon Swift is swift to the defense of another embattled conservative.
Driving in the Snow 0
This is neat.
Anthropomorphism 0
Over at Mithras’s place:
. . . it’s telling that premeditated violence is the hallmark of human-like behavior.
Drawing Nigh 4
The end of our Winter of Discombobulation.
The winter part, that is. The discombobulation will continue.
The crocuses are in bloom.
Oh. My. Goodness. 2
Over at Phillygrrl’s place.