By Spencer I just posted this in the comments at Marginal Revolution to explain why the view that expanding bank lending demonstrates that their is no crises is incorrect. By looking at bank lending you are looking at the wrong side of the bank’s balance sheet. The point that bank lending is expanding is not […]
rdan A quick search on 401ks in response to reader Noni Mausa: Via Money Central: Financially stretched workers are increasingly breaking into their retirement accounts to get cash.Over the past couple of decades, the 401(k) account and its brethren have become the main retirement savings vehicles for millions of Americans. But as the credit crunch […]
You can’t make him think—or own to loan. Krugman notes: [L]ast week Joe Nocera of The Times pointed out a key weakness in the U.S. Treasury’s bank rescue plan: it contains no safeguards against the possibility that banks will simply sit on the money. “Unlike the British government, which is mandating lending requirements in return […]
AP reports that US helicopters flew into Syrian airspace and killed eight people today. Any more news?
by rdanThe NYT provides charts and article as well. (hat tip reader kuros) Layoffs have arrived in force, like a wrenching second act in the unfolding crisis. In just the last two weeks, the list of companies announcing their intention to cut workers has read like a Who’s Who of corporate America: Merck, Yahoo, General […]
OMB Watch carries: Notes from the Economy: UnderemploymentWhile the monthly number is an important component in summarizing the state of economy, but it’s an incomplete indicator. For example, at the state level in August, 20 states had unemployment rates greater than the national average of 6.1 percent, while 31 states had unemployment rates below the […]
Krugman believes people want someone who is “serious”: In a way, you can’t blame Mr. McCain for campaigning on trivia—after all, it’s worked in the past. Most notably, President Bush got within hanging-chads-and-butterfly-ballot range of the White House only because much of the news media, rather than focusing on the candidates’ policy proposals, focused on […]
Via Dr. Black, Alpha Bank and Trust of Alpharetta is now FDIC-owned. In related news, PNC is paying about $5.6 billion for midwest-based National City, which was a major player in subprime until everyone realized they weren’t any good at it. As noted previously, the claim was that monies given to “regional leaders” such as […]
In the “correlation may not be causation, but the trend is your friend” category. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin—at the request of McCain-supporting Flyer owner Ed Snider—dropped the puck in celebration of “hockey moms” at the Flyers home (and season) opener. That was October 11th. They lost. Followed by five more losses (three in […]
by cactus Infant Mortality – The Excuse is Addressed From a report put out by the CDC: Infant mortality rates were generally lowest (below 3.5 per 1,000) in selected Scandinavian (Sweden, Norway, and Finland) and East Asian (Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) countries. In 2004, 22 countries had infant mortality rates below 5.0. The United […]