Friday, April 17, 2009

SAR #9107

"Don't count your recoveries before they're hatched." Paul Krugman.


As Goes Wal-Mart... CEO Mike Duke says Wal-Mart's customers are under a great deal of stress, fear unemployment, and are paying with cash - which leads him to believe the recession will not be V-shaped and a quick recovery is not likely. But what's he know, he's only using his 140 million US customers as a basis.

Trust Me. Mr. Bernanke, who has yet to pull the rabbit out of any of a dozen hats, says that he can wave his magic wand and make inflation disappear. Don't believe him.

Book Bucks: Research shows that charter schools do only a slightly better job than public schools academically. But they cannot do it at anywhere near the cost of the public schools; most fail financially. So much for the efficiency of the profit motive in education, which was the basis for the privatization propaganda.

Definition: Optimist - one who believes our civilization may not collapse outright, but will only gradually fade away, like the Romans.

Preview: Barry Diller, who has made a buck or two investing, says the chaos and destruction in the finance sector has yet to invade commercial real estate, corporate debt, over-leveraged acquisitions and re-capitalizations. But it will.

IOU an IOU: Arnold, a known deadbeat, wants to borrow some more money and promises that if he can't pay it back, his Uncle - the well known counterfeiter - will.

Losses Loom: With foreclosures up 46% y/y as the indulgent 'moratorium' expired, it will take about six months for the losses to show up on bank balance sheets. This year's expected 3 million foreclosures will show up somewhat sooner in a neighborhood near you.

Banks Against America: Mr. Bush was wrong, the true axis of evil is centered on Wall Street, not Iran.

Stirred, Not Shaken: The last time the earth warmed and the polar ice melted, the oceans rose nine feet in a few decades. The report suggested this a was "a distinct possibility within the next 100 years." Like so many things, most of them unwelcome.

Conundrum: General Growth Properties generally didn't grow. The nation's second largest mall owner (200 malls) filed for bankruptcy.

Lonely Star: Texas's Governor Goodhair Perry says Texas has the right to secede, and should do so. Fine, but they've gotta take all the Bush family with them.

Eager Beavers: NSA has been intercepting American's private e-mails and phone calls on a scale far beyond the 'legal' limits set last year. These warrantless violations of the constitution are not illegal acts, according to NSA, are but the result "unintentional overcollection".

Shiftless Pikers: JPMorgan reports that prime mortgage delinquencies could cost them $500 million in write-offs in the current quarter. Seems that, unexpectedly, the unemployed can't keep up their payments.

Porn O'Graph: Sales on Troubled Waters

3 comments:

jfwells said...

Lonely Star: Texas's Governor Goodhair Perry says Texas has the right to secede, and should do so. Fine, but they've gotta take all the Bush family with them.Funny how it is always the states that take in more federal spending per capita than their citizens contribute in taxes that complain the most about the government. If Texas wants to go, great. Let's see how much fun they have trying to "secure" their borders, since that seems to be a high priority of theirs. I am all for messing with Texas.

Anonymous said...

Lonely Star: Texas's Governor Goodhair Perry says Texas has the right to secede, and should do so. Fine, but they've gotta take all the Bush family with them.

Best news ever. When they go they can take all the Federal Debt created by the Knucklehead Texas Presidents (Johnson, Bush, Busher) that we have had to endure.

Keith Hazelton Anecdotal Economist said...

Re: As Goes Wal-Mart...

Well it's good to know at least SOME of the $90 billion of fresh, crisp Benjamins that Hank, Timmy and Ben have been ginning up in the Fed's basement since August of last year (+11 percent jump in FR Notes)didn't just get sent to that other black-hole money conduit, Iraq.