by Bruce Webb A new front was opened Monday in the war on Social Security. The first shot came from Kevin Hassett of AEI who wrote a piece for Bloomberg Recession Bites Into Social Security’s Surplus We have all been so busy whining about bonuses at American International Group Inc. and arguing about the so-called […]

rdan Zero Hedge notes the beginnings of another kind of recovery by the big guys. This paragraph caught my eye. While on one hand it is surprising that NTRS could generate losses on lender arrangements, which traditionally have a 0 lower return bound, what is much more shocking, is that such a large company as […]

Greg Mitchell’s twitter feed reminds us of Upton Sinclair’s 1934 campaign for Governor of California. Working on Sinclair’s campaign, as noted in an article we ran several years ago in NYRSF, was a former Naval Officer in his mid-20s whose career was cut short by tuberculosis: Robert A. Heinlein. As Mitchell notes: The champion of […]

McGill University Macroeconomics Comprehension Exam, May 2003, Question 10 (Essay): The stock market bubble burst in the spring of 2000. The popular pres now talks about a housing bubble, referring to ever rising prices of houses in North America (and elsewhere). They say that if the housing bubble bursts it will have a much more […]

by Bruce Webb What special holiday falls on March 31st? Yep is is Social Security Report Release Day. Now as I type it turns out that the Social Security Bunny (aka Commissioner Michael Astrue) has not actually delivered his special SS Egg, and gosh who knows, given that we are still in transition from the […]

rdan (re-post) Perhaps Simon Johnson is correct in his estimation of a captured financial/government combination than is discussed in detail to date. Here is his Atlantic Monthly piece a la IMF perspective…two paragraphs stand out for me on the first page, but explanation goes on for several pages. In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. […]

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Robert Waldmann JimLuke argues that GM will almost certainly go bankrupt because … there may be thousands (perhaps even millions) of seperate bondholders, the vast majority have no voice in the negotiations. Instead, there is a “bondholders’ committee”. Who is on the committee? The “experts” and the large bondholders: primarily banks and bond funds. These […]

rdan NYT shouts out about Wagoner and GM. Chrysler must merge with Fiat? Wagoner needed to go in my opinion, but so do some of the bankers. When is that to happen? Perhaps Simon Johnson is more correct in his estimation of a captured financial/government combination than is discussed in detail to date. Here is […]

rdan Good News Economist suggests there is good news that many banks are still lending and were not caught in the crazy markets of sub-prime and CDOs. The story looks to be more complicated than just mega-banks and credit freezes.