"A horse!  A horse!  My kingdom for a horse!"  Market quants are always seeking a better horse, never quite getting there.  And occasionally falling off onto their ass; and the rest of the world's while they're at it.  The debacle at JP Morgan, and the obfuscation attendant t… Read full post »

IBM (IBM) announced the opening of a branch office in the city of Da Nang in Central Vietnam as part of the co's continued geographic expansion initiative to increase its presence in key growth markets.

from:  Briefing.com Read full post »

As I, not alone but lonely, have written many times:  the Euro can't work without a partner of fiscal policy.  Just as the Blue States send $$$ billions to Red States (ingrates though they are), so Germany, France, etc. must have a de facto fiscal policy towards their poor Southern Brethren… Read full post »

Well, the Flation Numbers came out this week and last.  And, as usual, the Prosperity Through Austerity And Inflation's The Issue folks can't be happy.  Here they are:
Core PPI 0.2%
Core CPI 0.2%
PPI -0.2%
CPI  0.0%

I'll leave it to the reader to see the forest and the trees.  All that… Read full post »

While it's both satisfying and correct to dismiss the Rand/Hayek/Wingnut lunatic fringe as evil fruitcakes, and the global oligarches to whom they offer "intellectual" support surely are, there is a reason they've come to defend the indefensible.  This missive will attempt to provide an explanat… Read full post »

Only a few, Krugman notably, have kept saying, contradicting the Rand-ians, that the Great Recession is due only to governments run amok (the intelligent understand that this only describes Greece).  He frequently points to Spain, where, he says, the problem has always been corporate debt. … Read full post »

Mr. Market is popping xanax and quaaludes like Jelly Bellies (from bygone years; he's kept an ample supply) with the results from France and more agita in Greece.  Seems an opportune time to discuss what the mainstream pundits avoid.  How did we get here?

The mainstream pundits, by and large… Read full post »

Reminder:  Part 3/4 of "Money, Power, and Wall Street" is tonight at 9 PM, most places.  Set your teevee timer. Read full post »

It turns out that there is an identifiable patient zero (well, two) to The Great Recession.  "Money, Power and Wall Street" is a four-part, broadcast as two two-hour segments on "Frontline" on PBS.  The first two were last night, and the remaining two will be next Tuesday night.  Check… Read full post »

By now it should be clear that The Great Recession was caused, at its heart, by folks attempting to gain money for nothing.  As this endeavor has said many times:  investment, real physical investment, is the process of savers giving, for a fee called interest, their money to borrowers, who… Read full post »

Is the Web sustainable?  That's a question for quants and investors and policy makers and inventive types.  I've mentioned a few times here that advert based webbiness is doomed, in any long term.  Since the users are bifurcated twixt those staring at the browser, clicking and the real… Read full post »

For those who still watch the Golf (Masters) on TV, you've likely seen the "ads" about the shitty performance of American students in math and science.  Exxon/Mobil paid for them.  One wonders why.

From a few years ago, an article describing Exxon's outsourcing of high value jobs to India.

Be… Read full post »

Great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, with the publication of the March monthly employment number.  Note:  that one number.  As previously predicted here, January and February numbers were boosted by the seasonal adjustment weights, and that the piper would be paid in March.… Read full post »

Since mid-day yesterday, and the release of the current FOMC notes, Mr. Market has been doing a Norman Bates berserker.  Therein lies a tale.

A few miles from the drafty garret in which I type this deathless prose lies the remains of Scovill Corporation.  Scovill was the spawn of Mr. Wilbur… Read full post »

The ongoing assault by the Right Wingnuts, blaming the victims, has led to a further consideration of The Fed's historically low interest rate (or is it?).  From simple observation, the creation of, and demand for, all those mortgage loans (good yield, no risk) was the necessary result of an ove… Read full post »

For those Right Wingnuts, attired in tin foil hats of course, here's the Real Big Brother!!!  Stupid morons. It ain't "1984", it's "Robo Cop" (except we don't got no Robo Cop).

Here's the money quote:
"Several politicians including Michigan's own State Representatives Aric Nesbitt and Matt Lori ha… Read full post »

Nor any drop to drink.  Remember that sentence?  "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge, opium fiend.  Today, the overriding meme is Big Data, as if all analyses have to shift through the entire population of interest every time for every question.  Yet, there isn't always the… Read full post »

One of the major, if not most major, themes of this endeavor is externalities.  Microeconomists, the Rand-ians to make a label, studiously ignore the issue, since it messes up their "freedom" meme.  But, the fact remains, that the more laissez faire the government, the easier it is for acto… Read full post »

The new home sales report for March was just released.  The "takeaway" number was a bit below February, a bit below expectations, at 313,000.  You can find it here.

Now, here's the kicker. 

The headline:
"Sales of new single-family houses in February 2012 were at a seasonally adjusted an… Read full post »

So, let's speculate.

My vote:  our 38 year old father of 2 from Washington will be revealed to be a born again Christian.

[UPDATE]

In the comments, I generalized (from memory) the nature of US Army enlistees.  Here's what the US Army has to say, as of 2009;… Read full post »

Turns out, there are professional economists (technically, I'm not one at the moment, since no one pays me to compose these missives) out there who question the impact of seasonal adjustment on the rosier than expected numbers for December to February (technically, meteorological winter).

"You prevert!"  Thus spake the redneck.  Sometimes unintended consequences are also perverse.  That's the topic.

The EU is all aflutter, and took 200 points off the Dow yesterday, although as I type pre-market open is up.  We'll see.  The Prosperity Through Austerity folks hav… Read full post »

It's been recently reported that the Obama money won't be finding its way to Congressional contests.  Given that money is the lifeblood of politics, Obama is putting a fork in Democracy.  It didn't have to be this way.  By ignoring the 2010 election, he gave the Right Wingnuts all the… Read full post »

It's not been too frequent, even in the wake of quants taking down the world's economy, to read a quant who has the temerity (and, possibly, gonads) to say that which must be silent.  But now it has.

One quote from the interview (then I'll expect you to go off and read… Read full post »

The subtitle of this endeavor tells us that the distribution of income is the prime, if not sole, determinant of economic and social stability.  The Great Recession was caused by the massive shift of income from the many to the few, guised in investment in one's housing.  A fool's enterpris… Read full post »