CNBC – Warren Buffett to CNBC: “We’re Still In a Recession” Warren Buffett tells CNBC that by his own “common sense” definition, the United States is “still in a recession.” In a taped interview with Becky Quick airing this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Buffett says, “I think we’re in a recession until real per… Continue reading Buffett Has All Angles Covered
Bloomberg.com – Exxon Mobil, Apple, PetroChina Top List of World’s Biggest Stocks Company Market Capitalization 1. Exxon Mobil $313.3 billion 2. Apple $267.1 billion 3. PetroChina $265.5 billion 4. Microsoft $211.7 billion 5. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China $211.5 billion
Bloomberg.com – Analyst Who Called Recession End Sees Durable Rebound Economist Thomas Lam, who accurately forecast 16 months ago when the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression would end, now says chances of a renewed slump in the coming year are no more than 20 percent. “The main risk to the U.S. economy today… Continue reading The Odds Of A Double Dip?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Irish GDP Drops Unexpectedly Ireland posted a surprise second-quarter gross domestic product decline of 1.2%, having officially exited its recession in the first quarter of the year, the Central Statistics Office said Thursday. The second-quarter figures are bad news for the Irish economy as… Continue reading Ireland Is The First To Undergo A Double Dip
The Wall Street Journal – Defaults Account for Most of Pared Down Debt 0.08% — The annual rate at which U.S. consumers have pared down their debts since mid-2008, not counting defaults. U.S. consumers might not be quite as virtuous as they seem. The sharp decline in U.S. household debt over the past couple years… Continue reading U.S. Consumers Are Now Willingly Deleveraging
The Financial Times – Fed is cautious over its wording Investors always seem to think central bankers have access to secret information about the state of their economies. In August, that meant that the US Federal Reserve’s decision to stabilise its balance sheet by buying Treasury bonds was misread as a suggestion that the country… Continue reading The Federal Reserve
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Renewed Asset Purchases a Fraught Endeavor for Fed Rising odds of fresh economic support from the Federal Reserve is raising significant questions about the potency of such an effort…Buying longer-term assets appears to be the favored path of the Fed in large part because it has already done it,… Continue reading What Would QE2 Accomplish?
The Wall Street Journal – Too Little Inflation? Critics have long been urging the Federal Reserve to adopt a formal price rule to guide its monetary decisions, and this week the Fed finally came up with one, sort of. Lesson: Be careful what you wish for. In its statement after its Tuesday meeting, the Fed’s… Continue reading Inflation Targeting
The Financial Times – Treasury set to cut Tarp cost estimate The Obama administration is set to lower its estimate of the cost of the troubled asset relief programme when it celebrates the end of the bail-out effort next week, senior administration officials say…The Congressional Budget Office now pegs the actual cost at $66bn but… Continue reading Time For An Updated P&L Estimate On The TARP
The Financial Times – Lex: ETFs part I – Reform ETFs’ flexibility is helped by the nature of many the funds which, outside the US, do not actually own the assets whose performance is being tracked. For two-thirds of funds in Europe and three-quarters in Asia, according to a Royal Bank of Scotland report, the… Continue reading ETFs
The Wall Street Journal – Banks Pressed on Sour Home Loans Big U.S. banks are facing legal pressure to make up for losses tied to pools of soured low-end mortgage loans. In the latest effort, a group of investors in 2,300 mortgage securities worth roughly $500 billion is seeking to force several banks that originated… Continue reading Investors Sue Wall Street Over Sour Home Loans