Archive for May 27th, 2009

Paul McCulley: Hyman Minsky Predicted The Bubble And Its Aftermath

Pimco’s Paul McCulley has a really superb article that ties the work of Hyman Minsky to the current economic collapse. If you don’t know Minsky, don’t worry McCulley does a great job of explaining his theories and then showing how eerily they comport to events of the past few years. It’s a long but very […]

PPIP Starting To Die On The Vine

In the immortal words of Lily Tomlin, “Never mind.” That seems to sum up the fate of the PPIP. The WSJ is reporting that the whole program is stalling and may go into the deep freeze. A government program designed to rid banks of bad loans, part of a broader effort once viewed as central […]

More On The Jobs The Administration Has “Saved”

Reuters is out with a report that the administration claims to have “created or saved 150,000 jobs” in the 100 days since the fiscal stimulus plan was signed. “In every state across this country, people are at work who would not have been so but for the measures in this act,” Jared Bernstein, chief economic […]

Europe Moves To Tighten Down On Banks

The European Union appears to be heading towards centralized regulation of the region’s financial services industry. From the Telegraph: “It’s now or never,” said Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. “If we cannot reform the financial sector when we have a real crisis, when will we?” Three new bodies are to be created with a permanent […]

Bair Nips Banks PPIP Plans In The Bud

Sheila Bair may have her failings but being politically tone deaf isn’t one of them. She has ruled out a suggestion that banks be allowed to buy their own assets as participants in the PPIP. From Bloomberg: “There should be no confusion: Banks will not be able to bid on their own assets,” Bair said […]

Green Shoots And Dour Pundits

Let’s get all the economic news and opinion out of the way with one post. It’s not that dramatic and all of the pundits are beginning to sound tediously repetitive. According to the National Association of Realtors, single family home sales were up but so were inventories. Single-family home sales rose 2.5 percent to a […]