naked capitalism Mon 2010-09-20 19:10 EDT

American Businesses and Consumers are NOT Deleveraging ... They Are Going On One Last Binge

Everyone knows that the American consumer is deleveraging ... living more frugally, and paying down debt. Right?...Karl Denninger notes: ``From a peak in 2005 of $13.1 trillion in equity in residential real estate, that value has now diminished by approximately half to $6.67 trillion!Yet outstanding household debt has in fact increased from $11.7 trillion to $13.5 trillion today. Folks, those who claim that we have ``de-levered'' are lying. Not only has the consumer not de-levered but business is actually gearing up -- putting the lie to any claim that they have ``record cash.'' Well, yes, but they also have record debt, and instead of decreasing leverage levels they're adding to them'' ...the government has done everything it can to prevent deleveraging by the financial companies, and to re-lever up the economy to dizzying levels.

American businesses; Binge; consumer; deleveraging; Go; naked capitalism.

Fri 2010-04-02 19:12 EDT

Shopaholic China: China's Global Shopping Spree: Is the World's Future Resource Map Tilting East?

Michael Klare, TomDispatch

...anticipating the kind of voracious resource consumption that goes with anticipated future growth, and worried about the availability of adequate supplies, giant Chinese energy and manufacturing firms -- many of them state-owned -- have been on a veritable spending binge when it comes to locking down resource supplies for the twenty-first century. They have acquired oil fields, natural gas reserves, mines, pipelines, refineries, and other resource assets in a global buying spree of almost unprecedented proportions...

China's Global Shopping Spree; Shopaholic China; world's future resource map tilting east.

naked capitalism Tue 2009-09-22 13:02 EDT

Bank of America: 40% of Junk Bonds to Default by 2013

With more than half the corporate bonds rated junk, thanks to highly-levered takeovers, it wasn't hard to imagine that a protracted economic bad spell could lead to a lot of defaults...the novel feature of the binge of late-cycle merger loans, ``cov lite'' deals, will make the damage worse...the odds of a successful [re]structuring are lower, and more companies will wind up liquidating. Thus not only will defaults reach new post-war highs, but recoveries are likely to be lower.

2013; 40; America; bank; default; junk bonds; naked capitalism.

Wed 2008-04-16 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Merrill's Reckless Mortgage Bond Binge

Merrill's Reckless Mortgage Bond Binge; naked capitalism.

Wed 2007-09-12 00:00 EDT

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Global Savings Glut Exposed

Bernanke "emperor with no clothes"; savings glut "a speculative credit binge now going bust"

Global Savings Glut Exposed; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.