October 2008

Every headline feels like an explosion. But is the root cause of this mess--the housing crisis--really that bad? Is the U.S. overreacting? Read on for some illuminating statistics from the Federal Reserve that shed fresh new light on the number of borrowers and homes that are really in jeopardy in the housing crisis. As banks sit staring morosely at a moldering dustheap of damaged mortgage ... read more

Massive positions are just starting to be unwound in the credit default swaps market as tens of billions of dollars worth of these contracts are now getting settled in the aftermath of several high-profile flops. Banks are hoarding cash in expectation of expected payouts on anywhere from $200bn to $1 tn--no one knows the amount, adding to volatility--for defaulted credit derivatives linked to ... read more

Last Wednesday, the same day General Electric (GE) announced that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway planned to invest $3 bn in the conglomerate and that it planned a new $12 bn stock offering, GE shot a little noticed filing over to the Securities and Exchange Commission that gave fresh detail on the unhealthy state of the company. In the filing, GE warned it may not succeed in its desperate ... read more

If there's anyone in Congress who should feel like he has been shouting into a field of cotton, it should be Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas). And sometimes a journalist just needs to yield the platform for once, for God's sakes, to someone who is trying to bring some common sense to the debate. Because God knows we TV gasbags have done enough, doing our part to add to global warming, taking ... read more

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”--H.L. Mencken The $700 bn bailout of the financial system, what Congress wants you to call a rescue, even though the bulging $850 bn piece legislation is now a well-lit Christmas tree of gimmes, has been ... read more