Archive for August 21st, 2009

Friday Failures

Another busy Friday as those lovable folks at the FDIC continued to cull the ranks of the nation’s banks. Four was the count today with the biggie being Guaranty Bank. Here are the links: Guaranty Bank, Austin, Texas CapitalSouth Bank, Birmingham, Alabama First Coweta Bank, Newnan, Georgia ebank, Atlanta, Georgia Guaranty was sold to the […]

Ten Year Deficit Estimate Expected To Explode

The White House has leaked their estimate of the projected 10 year deficit which will be officially announced next week. It projects a whopping $2 trillion increase. From Politico.com: The White House is likely to dramatically increase its projected 10-year budget deficit estimate next week by nearly $2 trillion, senior administration officials said Friday. Obama […]

A Couple Different Views Of State Unemployment

The BLS is out with its monthly compilation of state by state employment data. It makes for interesting reading as well as highlighting the need to drill down in data to figure out what’s going on in any given region. Probably the most over used statistic is the unemployment rate. We all know that it […]

News Corp. Considers Selling The Dow

This is a typical summer Friday afternoon type of post. The WSJ is reporting that News Corp. its parent is considering selling the stock indexing service it got as part of its acquisition of Dow Jones. That service includes the Dow Jones Industrial Average which may be one of the most recognizable names in finance. […]

Outing Zero Hedge

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not a fan of the blog Zero Hedge. In my opinion it tends to sensationalize based on meager and sometimes flat out wrong data. In short, I find it adds little to reasoned discourse about events and issues. Given its penchant for being over-the-top and […]

Economists’ Reaction To The Housing Numbers

Further to my post on existing home sales, here are some reactions from economists. The housing market is back up and running and that is great news. … This was the fourth consecutive rise in demand, the first time we have seen that in five years. Prices remain weak and that may be a bit […]

Bernanke: The Long And Short Versions

For those who want the whole thing, here is Chairman Bernanke’s much awaited Jackson Hole speach. Bernanke — A Year of crisis For those who can do with a summary, here it is from the WSJ Real Time Economics blog: WHERE IS THE ECONOMY NOW? BETTER, NOT GREAT. “After contracting sharply over the past year, […]