Federal Reserve is damned either way as it battles debt and deflation – Telegraph
Federal Reserve is damned either way as it battles debt and deflation – Telegraph
Xstrata falls on fears over covenant breaches – Telegraph
US Fed’s foolhardiness is of more concern than deflation – Telegraph
FT.com | Willem Buiter’s Maverecon | Car manufacturers: the case for [...]

With the weekend and Holiday season upon us, I wanted to end the week with a distraction of the day video sent to my by my friend Judith. I think it’s pretty uplifting. Maybe, I’m just getting sentimental in my old age.

It was a surprise and honor to visit the indispensable finance resource Business Pundit and find our site mentioned amongst the list of best business blogs for the year.

Thank you Drea for mentioning us. And thank you readers for getting the word out about our site. We hope to continue to meet or exceed your expectations for relevant and thorough business and financial analysis.

Recently, an enormous 33% premium has developed for Brent. To me, this gap is utterly inexplicable except by technical factors. Translation: some players have a huge long position of WTI and they are getting squeezed.

Today, I want to talk a little about ZIRP, economic pain and the Madoff fraud.

Opel is a well-respected brand in Germany. As a result, the German subsidiary of General Motors has been profitable while the parent company was hemorrhaging losses. Many Germans see the parent as an albatross around their neck, leading to job losses and despair. Why not cut the cord?

It wasn’t until I read about a massive writedown by a German bank associated with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers that I started to connect the dots. But, there is a hidden flaw in our accounting system which accounts for some of the distress associated with the Lehman bankruptcy. And it all leads back to marking to market.

Now that the United States has cut its interest rates to Zero and Ben Bernanke has helicopters flying over Wall Street, the question is: what happens next and who’s following the Fed to zero? There are a lot of different answers.

This video of George Bush’s top 10 moments according to David Letterman is hilarious. Bush is nearly out of office. We’ll miss moments like these.

The World Trade Organization has called al any renewed discussions about expanding free trade. No one wants it now that the global economy is sick. Stephen Roach has been warning for months that this would be the likely result of global rebalancing and recession. Now, we are seeing he was correct.