Decline and fall of western civilization provides another look at repo fails in the US Treasury bond market, up to $2 trillion recently.

Ken Houghton CR beat me to commenting on this Mankiw whine post, partially because I couldn’t think of anything reasonable to say about it. (CR could. That’s why he gets the big bucks.) But now that CR has done the heavy lifting, let’s look at the other aspect: Mankiw’s standard: Based a standard ranking of […]

Robert Waldmann has become interested in Credit Default Swaps. I’m not just wondering whether they played a major role in destroying the world financial system or were just along for the housing bubble, MBS, CDO ride. I also wonder whether the acronym for the plural should be CDS or CDSs or even CDSes. I’m glad […]

Glenn Greenwald at Salon opines on the nature of BDS and the necessity of having major players agree and augment his statements and viewpoints, including the NYT. BDS has much merit in objective terms on many issues, but as one man, even the President, he hardly did his stuff alone, or against major headwinds from […]

CR reminds us of two lists for failed bank reports, the FDIC home page and the Failed Bank List.

Follow this link to a “Short Course on Behavioral Economics” at Edge. Be warned I have not viewed the video yet, but was drawn to the names involved, including Thaler and Romer.

by cactus General Motors and Social Security – Two Sides of the Same Coin There’s a group of folks out there who are busy pinning the blame for GM’s four-decade long implosion on unions. Those folks tend to also bleat the loudest about the crisis with Social Security. People like this miss the point with […]

Black Friday sales information Black Friday official sales site We shall see if the sales, specials, and earlier advertising make a difference with the sentiments of consumers and the shorter season. I am looking for a good deal on a GPS for Mrs. rdan. Any suggestions? Update: Friday report on retail for October

by divorced one like Bushcaution, a long read I’ve been reading: Making Government Work by Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings. Yes, that Hollings of Gramm and Rudman legislation fame. It is kind of rambling read, but I now understand why our congress of the democratic party side has been acting like moderate republicans and not liberal […]

Financial Times carries this little note on one hedge fund. SRM Global, the hedge fund run by the former star UBS trader Jon Wood, is suing The Wall Street Journal for publishing allegedly confidential information about its performance, setting up a high-stakes battle over the industry’s transparency. SRM claims the newspaper acted in “flagrant disregard” […]