The Wall Street Journal – GM to Acquire AmeriCredit for $3.5 Billion General Motors Co. said Thursday it will acquire auto-finance company AmeriCredit Corp. in a $3.5 billion deal aimed at increasing availability of auto loans and leases. The deal gives GM an in-house auto lender for the first time since it sold control of… Continue reading The Latest Sign That The Credit Crisis Is Alive And Well
[chatlog:main]
Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: ECRI – Slowdown or Double Dip? Economic Indicators That Lead Do Stocks Predict Recessions? Stocks And Bonds High Correlation Among Different Asset Classes What Drives Consumer Confidence? A Word On Earning Estimates Quarterly Earnings – Gamed And Useless Statistics Are Coming FOMC Minutes –… Continue reading Untitled
The Washington Post – Neil Irwin: Why Wall Street doesn’t understand the Fed First, the rumor as reported doesn’t make any sense to anyone familiar with how the Fed makes policy announcements. I am not aware of a single historical instance in which the Fed chairman announced an interest rate decision in congressional testimony. First,… Continue reading Bernanke Speaks Today
<Click on table for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Housing Market Stumbles The housing market, whose collapse pulled the economy into recession in late 2007, is stalling again. Economists aren’t singling out one reason for the stalling housing market. A variety of factors have led to flagging confidence, they say, including sluggish labor… Continue reading The Housing Market Falls …Again
The New York Times – E.U. Hopes Tests Boost Banks Like They Did in U.S. Last year, in the wake of the worst financial crisis since those dark days, U.S. regulators gave investors a similar lift when they conducted exams showing U.S. banks could weather a prolonged downturn — a feat that Europe is hoping… Continue reading European Stress Tests
Marketwatch.com – Double dip looks doubly certain Commentary: The economic recovery is just an illusion It has been said that if one laid all the world’s economists end to end, they wouldn’t reach a conclusion. Even so, a surprisingly large number of economists now agree that then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made a tragic mistake.… Continue reading Double Dip Recession
The New Yorker – John Cassidy: The Volcker Rule Volcker has pointed out that professional economists didn’t do a very good job of predicting the most recent crisis. The Volcker rule was intended not as a substitute for broader reform but as a supplement to it, and as a way of grasping the too-big-to-fail problem.… Continue reading The “Weak” Volcker Rule
The Wall Street Journal – Bond Sale? Don’t Quote Us, Request Credit Firms Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings are all refusing to allow their ratings to be used in documentation for new bond sales, each said in statements in recent days. Each says it fears being exposed to new legal liability… Continue reading Credit Agencies
The Financial Times – Watchdog attacks US mortgage aid scheme On Tuesday, the Treasury department released its latest figures on loan modifications related to Hamp, saying that permanent modifications had risen by 13 per cent to almost 300,000 between March and April.“As the number of homeowners receiving permanent modifications continues to increase, the administration’s comprehensive… Continue reading More Criticism For The Mortgage Modification Program
None Today