The bad news of the day is that about $5B ($5,000,000,000) more than previously believed went to buy goods made in China, Japan, non-major South and Central American countries, and other places outside the U.S. Per the Vampire Squid (tm Matt Taibbi), this should cause a revision to Q2 US GDP from 1.3% to 0.9%. […]

For years I’ve made it no secret that I thought the US was going to follow Japan into a so called lost decade — of course it’s now more than a decade. With the US stock market now apparently in a free fall I though this chart I’ve been keeping for years would prove of […]

Or, Barack Obama sucks at 11-dimensional chess. On July 14, 2011, S&P was assuming that 2001 and 2003 tax fraud deferrals would expire at the end of 2012 [Update: link updated, via MG; PDF–see page 4]. It is no longer making that assumption, which is worth another $4T. Brad DeLong annotates/redlines the press release without […]

From Crash of the Titans, pp. 33-34: The largest chunks of these [created by Merrill in the winter of 2006-2007] CDOs still carried triple-A ratings, at least in name, because the credit rating agencies hadn’t bothered to recalibrate their antiquated ratings models. But almost no one was willing to buy the triple-A portion of these […]

I didn’t know what to call this post since it is about myself, a topic I tend to try to obscure in public for reasons of personality quirks. But I need to open this up for Angry Bear contributors and readers, whom I actually admire and for whom I feel a great respect. I do […]

by Mike Kimel Assume a world similar to ours, but with a major difference. At some point in the 1920s, an inventor came up with a product called Fleem. Fleem has interesting properties, and when applied liberally in a house, gives even the meanest hovel a more homey feel. A healthy market for Fleem develops […]

I think given the seriousness of the political situation currently being played out, which in my thinking includes the current S and P opinion, has been discussed in comments in a remarkable fashion. Plenty of links and thoughtful commentary. And of course passions run high and are expressed. Well done and my thanks to the […]

Via Ellie Lang, the NYT (no link, unless this works) lists thirteen (13) countries that have a AAA credit rating from S&P: Switzerland Hong Kong Sweden Germany Canada Denmark Britain Netherlands Finland Norway Austria France Australia The thing all thirteen have in common? All provide National Health Care.

References are here (Cowen) and here (Salmon).* Just because Charlie Sheen got drunk, did some other drugs, and committed adultery doesn’t mean he’ll do it again. Just because someone who calls himself Jack the Ripper has killed two women in London doesn’t mean he’ll do it again. Just because the U.S. dropped a hydrogen bomb […]