March 2008

Recently, on Mar. 18th, the Federal Reserve lowered the Fed Funds rate to 2.25%. In the accompanying statement, the Fed said the following: "Recent information indicates that the outlook for economic activity has weakened further. Growth…

This is a story of unequal re-distribution of wealth from the less fortunate to the more fortunate. This is a story of the United States in which the rich get richer at the expense of everybody else. At the conclusion, ask yourself: is this…

Note from June 2010: You'll forgive me if I have conflated private and public sector debt below as if they are the same. They are not. When I speak of deficit spending in the same voice as private sector debts, I really point to deficits to…

As the housing bubble pops, one major casualty is likely to be state and local government property tax receipts. It appears that state and local governments recklessly spent the windfall revenue that they received during the boom times and…

The dollar has suffered a spectacular collapse against the Euro, Swiss Franc, Gold and Silver as investors flee U.S. Assets in the wake of the spectacular collapse of one of Wall Street's largest companies, Bear Stearns. The Swiss Franc…

The credit bubble has claimed its first major finance company: Bear Stearns. The venerable firm, which traded as high as $160 in 2007 and was trading above $60 just last week, was bought for a mere $2 per share by rival JP Morgan Chase and…

Economic News Round-upI am off to the beach for a week, so I thought I would highlight a few stories that I have found particularly interesting as opposed to writing anything of substance today.JP Morgan Chase, Fed Funding Bear Stearns -…

The Fed has pulled out all the stops to fight against the severe credit crunch that first hit our economy in August. The latest salvo in this mission is the Fed's decision to allow banks to trade $200 billion in dubious mortgage backed…

Credit Writedowns (www.creditwritedowns.com) is a news and opinion site dedicated to bringing a well-informed view of finance, economics, markets and all relevant global events into the global mainstream consciousness. The site started in…

When the going gets tough, the tough turn into populists. Or at least that's what we have seen time and again throughout history. In the 1930s, as the Great Depression was savaging the American Economy, people trembled in fear at the…