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Spanish Bond “relief” and US jobless claims “surprise”. OK someone tell me, is it me or the headline writters who are living in a parallel reality? First Spain – the “relief” according to the aritcles I’ve consulted all agree, is because Spain had ”no trouble’ selling its 10 and 30 year bonds. All the print […]

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have de-listed their shares today. Under the orders of their conservatorship. The reasons are not hard to find – both are in a realm of brokeness for which there is no adaquate word. We are talking of a Trillion dollars worth of worthlessness. Last month their shares went to

The future of making the Austerity plan work. That is the white paper being prepared in every capital city in Europe. Here are some of the items likely to be in it. First Pensions must be cut. First public pensions. To do this a careful campaign of demonizing public workers must be persued. Stories must

We are rapidly approaching another massive bail-out. This time of Spain. Of course it will not be called a bail-out. That is now too contentious a term. It will be called something technical and reasonable, like, ‘a European borrowing facility’. It’s officially stated purpose will be , ‘to facilitate and provide reasonable borrowing terms to

I think BP should pay compensation. I think there should also be some sort of enquiry into who was really resposible for what. I doubt BP is alone in being culpable. But for the Americans who feel rightly agrieved at the despoilation of their coast by this spill I have one word of caution –

Europe has a debt problem. A reluctant attender of Debtors Annonymous, Europe has been outed and forced to make the ignominious admission. The US however is still in denial. Who? Me? No I have a few debts, so what? Who doesn’t? Nothing I can’t handle. What’s a couple of trillion empties between friends? But the

Sorry for the silence. There is a growing feeling of unease and expectancy around. The markets have tried 3 or 4 times to rally and failed each time. Today was a triple digit rise followed by losing it all and ending down. The markets need a bigger, more convincing peice of news to make-believe with.

At the moment the signare still just that – signs. But this new one is ominously familiar. Aussie Home Loans which is Australia’s largest loan broker is unable to get finding. Aussie originates loans which it then passes on th ethe big banks. Aussie is woned and funded by two of those banks ANZ and

In the Great Depression or what we might still come to re-name as GD1.0 one of the catalysts for the big drop was the rise in protectionist tit-for-tat trade tarrifs. It has become an article of faith for Free-market experts that such protectionism is always and everywhere a terrible thing to do. So, until now

So what next? So much has been written about our financial situation but most of it has concentrated upon the health or otherwise of the banks and more recently the health of national currencies and debts. Thus the frame of reference has always been far above the level of our scurrying little concerns. In so