ShareThis in from the Times today: Bradford & Bingley is in big trouble. They are trying to do a rights issue and issue a profit warning at the same time. Can anyone tell me how one gets shareholders to pony up another 88p to buy a stock that is down from 2 quid [...]

I don’t trust the U.S. government’s inflation number for measuring real GDP. The annual rate of inflation in this measurement is only 2.2%, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is running at a 4.0% clip. That’s as large a differential as you’ll see between two government inflation statistics.

The GDP number was revised upwards from 0.6% growth to 0.9% growth. However, what is most interesting is the GDP implicit price deflator. This is the index number the BEA uses to get from nominal GDP to real GDP, the inflation-adjusted number everyone hears on TV and in the news. Nominal GDP was up only 3.5%. So what is your guess about the inflation number the BEA used to get the 0.9% growth number you hear on TV? 3% inflation, 4% inflation?

ShareI was just reviewing the Case-Shiller local metropolitan indices and saw that as the decline gets steeper, each of the 20 markets is reverting back to price levels 3 and 4 years in the past. So, here’s what I have on each metro area as of March 2008.
You last saw these prices in:
1. AZ-Phoenix——–March [...]

ShareRemember when Paul Wolfowitz admitted in 2003 almost five years ago to the day that there never were any weapons of mass destruction? The Bush Administration had decided to use the WMD rationale ‘for bureaucratic reasons.’ He said, For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it [...]

ShareI was just listening to the Podcast of the Diane Rehm Show’s Friday Round-Up (real media file here) and I heard one of the three press ‘pundits’ (Eamon Javers, Eleanor Clift, and Stephen Hayes) defending the shoddy and fearful work of the White House press corps leading up to the war. Scott McClellan wrote [...]

ShareDouble, double, oil and trouble
Thursday, May 29, 2008 9:41 AM
Is it ‘peak oil’ or a speculative bubble? Neither, really. AFTER oil hit its recent record of $135 a barrel, consumers and politicians started to lash out in every direction. Fishermen in France have been blockading ports and pouring oil on the roads in protest. British [...]

ShareBloomberg News reported that German retail sales for April were disappointing for the second month in a row. Retail sales growth is negative in Germany, adjusted for inflation.The reason: inflation. Consumers in Germany are losing spending power as inflation erodes the value of their earnings.
Sales, adjusted for inflation and seasonal swings, [...]

ShareThe U.S. Dollar (USD) seems to have stabilized against most major floating currencies. This includes the British Pound, The Euro, The Canadian, Aussie and New Zealand Dollar, the Swiss Franc and the Japanese Yen. However, many market participants hedge funds included, do not think the USD’s fall has been stopped. What is [...]

ShareSo, you’ve probably heard about Scott McClellan’s book. The word everyone is using is “scathing.” The Bush administration says he is “disgruntled.” Irrespective of what the spin is, the fact is he was a White House insider for seven years and the Chief Spokesperson for the White House. What he says [...]