Minyanville Sun 2009-09-20 11:17 EDT

Our Marionette Economy

This morning in the Wall Street Journal Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf is quoted saying ``If it's not a government program it's basically not getting done.'' While Stumpf's comment was targeted to the mortgage market and associated with a plea for Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) to raise their size limits so as to be able to pick up more jumbo mortgages I believe he nailed the current state of our economy: ``If it's not a government program it's basically not getting done.''...But to me, there's a fundamental flaw to the notion that the government can create a sustainable economic recovery...I kept coming back to a comment from Bennet Sedacca: ``They (the government) can make 'em bounce, but they can't make 'em fly.''

Marionette Economy; Minyanville.

naked capitalism Tue 2009-09-01 13:10 EDT

Twenty-Five Years to Work Off the Debt Overhang?

T. S. Eliot was right. Human beings cannot stand very much reality. As much as I have an appetite for bearish views (I figure the optimist case gets disproportionate air time), the headline of Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's latest piece, ``Our quarter-century penance is just starting,'' is grim even by the standards of the bearish faithful. Great comment by DownSouth, quoting Martin Luther King and Reinhold Niebuhr to the effect that by delegating to elites what should be the role of labor unions and grass-roots organizations. Niebuhr wrote: ``when collective power, whether in the form of imperialism or class domination, exploits weakness, it can never be dislodged unless power is raised against it'' ``Before we can fix the economy, the polity must be repaired first.''

debt overhang; naked capitalism; working; years.

The IRA Analyst Tue 2009-06-16 00:00 EDT

The Institutional Risk Analyst: Zombie Update; Pento on Bernanke's Permanently Expanded Balance Sheet

``This zombie dance party ain't over. No sir.'' Michael Pento: ``Bernanke will be hard-pressed to substantially raise rates to combat inflation once consumer and wholesale prices begin to significantly increase.''

Bernanke's Permanently Expanded Balance Sheet; Institutional Risk Analyst; IRA Analyst; Pento; Zombie Update.

Wed 2009-04-01 00:00 EDT

Calculated Risk: Former Fed Governor Feels "Accountable"

ex-fed governer Susan Schmidt Bies ``expressed regret at not acting to raise interest rates faster or doing more to strengthen mortgage underwriting''

accounted; Calculated Risk; Fed Governor Feels.

Thu 2009-02-26 00:00 EST

FT Alphaville >> Blog Archive >> The United States Oil Fund mystery

-- ETF distorting markets, raising doubts of front-month contract's viability as a hedging instrument; ETF taking NAV loss every time it rolls

blogs Archive; FT Alphaville; United States Oil Fund mystery.

Fri 2008-12-12 00:00 EST

Jesse's Café Américain: Money Supply, Paul Krugman, and the Great Depression

Jesse's Café Américain: Money Supply, Paul Krugman, and the Great Depression; ``Fed made a significant policy error in raising the discount rate in early 1931''; ``we can imagine an outcome in which misbegotten monetary policy results in an oligopoly of corporate interests and an economy that is permanently frozen in a series of de facto monopolies based on central planning, not all that dissimilar to the experience of the Soviet Union prior to its dissolution and some countries in which a hundred or so powerful families control the government and its economy in a state of permanent corruption and malaise.''

Great Depression; Jesse's Café Américain; money supply; Paul Krugman.

Tue 2008-11-25 00:00 EST

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Citigroup Bailout Raises Viability Questions For Entire Banking System

Citigroup Bailout Raises Viability Questions; entire banking system; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

Tue 2008-10-07 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Even Top Corporates Having Trouble Raising Short-Term Funding

naked capitalism; Top corporations; Trouble Raising Short-Term Funding.

Sun 2008-08-24 00:00 EDT

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Here They Go Again

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Here They Go Again; many early subprime modifications failing; banks which ``moved early and aggressively to deal with this in terms of raising new capital, foreclosing instead of restructuring, and tightening down early on lax credit, may be the last people standing''; loss severity increasing; ``third quarter is going to be an unmitigated disaster for the financial sector'', ``foreign money will move in a big way to gobble up American assets''

economic; Go; Market; watch; winter.

Mon 2008-07-07 00:00 EDT

Hussman Funds - Weekly Market Comment: The Outlook for Inflation and the Likelihood of $60 Oil - July 7, 2008

"government spending expansion, regardless of the form, will tend to raise the marginal utility of goods and services while lowering the marginal utility of government liabilities.", hence encouraging inflation

2008; 60 oil; Hussman Funds; Inflation; July 7; likelihood; outlook; weekly market comments.

Thu 2008-07-03 00:00 EDT

Faustian economics:

Hell hath no limits--By Wendell Berry (Harper's Magazine); "Our true religion is a sort of autistic industrialism"; "our 'identity' is located not in the impulse of selfhood but in deliberately maintained connections"; "in the phrase 'free market,' the word 'free' has come to mean unlimited economic power for some, with the necessary consequence of economic powerlessness for others"; "we confuse limits with confinement...our human and earthly limits, properly understood, are not confinements but rather inducements to formal elaboration and elegance, to _fullness_ of relationship and meaning"; "we want to make our economic landscapes sustainably and abundantly productive, we must do so by maintaining in them a living formal complexity something like that of natural ecosystems. We can do this only by raising to the highest level our mastery of the arts of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, and, ultimately, the art of living."

Faustian economics.

Thu 2008-06-19 00:00 EDT

Angry Bear: The Shrinking of Treehorn

packaged goods makers must raise prices or put less stuff in the package

Angry Bear; shrink; Treehorn.

Tue 2008-06-10 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Lehman Raises $6 Billion, Discusses Financials

6; Discusses Financials; Lehman Raises; naked capitalism.

Thu 2008-06-05 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Regulatory Reform Idea: Raise the Minders' Compensation

compensation; minders; naked capitalism; raised; Regulatory Reform Idea.

Tue 2008-06-03 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Lehman on the Ropes Again, Looking to Raise Equity

Lehman; looking; naked capitalism; Raise Equity; roped.

Tue 2007-08-28 00:00 EDT

FT.com / Capital markets - Trouble off balance sheet raises concerns

HBOS; Grampian; bank conduits

balance sheet raises concerns; Capital Markets; com; FT; Troubles.