Where is the rally going to get its lift from? I think they are running out of fireworks. The US released figures for new Home sales showing them UP. They released figures showing sales of durable goods UP. They even managed to get Morgan Stanley to persuade Qatar to buy 1.5 billion of the US …
Well things are looking mighty dodgey for Spain’s banks just now. Spain’s Central Bank has just told them they must now hold extra loss reserves against property the banks ‘aquired’ from defaulted loans. The CB has told them they have to write down the value and hold reseve capital to the tune of 10% on …
From the begining of this whole crisis we have been told by all the experts that what we needed was first cash and then confidence. When Bear Stearns, Fannie, Freddie and Lehman all fell over we were told by Secretary of the Treasury and former Goldman Sachs CEO Paulson, that without $700 Billion in Bail-out …
Caja’s are Spain’s Building Societies. They are where the boom was and where the bust is. They are unexploded ordinance. Problems first surfaced in the Cajas back in July of 09 when Caja Castilla La Mancha folded and was rescued. At the time people suddenly noticed non-performing loans at the Caja were 4% and set …
What was it, a week ago we were in free fall down 800 points on all markets? Today we are in free fall in all markets BELOW where we were during last weeks fall. But we did manage to find the time to set fire to 750 Billion Euros in the mean time. That was …
Thanks to Andrew for the link for part of this bit of news. See his comment under Debt Laundering and Theft. Amoung the many owners and buyers of US debt it turns out that individual States and local governments had by dec ’09 bought $528 billion of Federal Debt. Now, as holdings go, this is …
Yesterday we were told that US existing home resales were up 7.6 % in April. The reason for this increase is the rush to benefit from the Federal subsidy which expires at the end of the month. Today comes the admission from the head of the FHA that together, the FHA and the terrible twinds …
I want to return to a topic that I wrote a comment about a long time ago on the Guardian and was one of the few times I was deleted. I think it was felt I was treading a little close to shark-infested waters. But snorkel in hand here I go again. Money laundering you …
I know I plague you with this stuff. But if or when it shifts you will be able to watch the resulting Tsumani heading your way from your bedroom. China’s central government says it wants to reign in its bank and property bubble. The problem is, nobody else does. The other intersted parties in the …
What do think this crisis is about? What was it about when it started and is it about that now? I would argue that certainly it began as a simple financial crisis. But as the scale and intractability of the crisis revealed itself it became something much more profound. It became what it is now …
