Brad Setser’s, Follow The Money, did its usual good job of putting the current Fed stance in perspective today. He notes that the Fed is has become the middle man for large scale financial transactions: Banks with spare cash (more deposits than loans) used to lend to banks that were short of cash (more loans than deposits). […]
Archive for December 17th, 2008
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The Beginning Of The End For Chrysler?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 17th, 2008
Make of this what you will. It is either political posturing or the beginning of the end for Chrysler. They announced today that they will shut down their entire production until the 19th of January and also announced steps that materially change their floorplan financing for dealers. The announced production cutback is ostensibly being made […]
Minneapolis Fed Has A Thougtful Take On Bank Lending
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 17th, 2008
Wordsmithing is not one of the skills that one normally associates with Fed economists, so their announcement that the country is suffering from “credit vertigo” falls short in the snappy phrase category. Nonetheless, the study by the Minneapolis Fed does describe a credit market that is searching for its sea legs. The common assumption that […]
How Many More Jobs Might Move Offshore?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 17th, 2008
Students at Harvard Business School have just completed a survey that indicates many of them might be developing skills that can be done cheaper offshore. Their study indicates that from 21% to 42% of U.S. jobs are potentially offshorable, or put another way 25.2 million to 31.8 million jobs could vanish. We aren’t talking about call centers and other […]
Commercial Real Estate Cratering
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 17th, 2008
Almost forgotten in the mess that’s the American economy has been commercial real estate. Forgotten by the press but certainly not by the market participants it is now poised to be the next body blow that the economy has to endure. An article in the New York Times does a really good job of introducing the emerging […]
