December 2008

Happy Monday. It was a fairly slow news day actually. But that doesn't mean there weren't a lot of stories to follow on economics and finance, because there were a lot. I am officially stopping the Madoff madness and moving on to something…

The yield on all U.S. Treasurys securities are at historic lows. The 3-year T-bill and the 1-year T-bill have both actually sported negative yields -- meaning investors are paying the U.S. Governemnt to borrow money from them. This is the…

Today the Irish government has unveiled a 10 billion euro plan to recapitalise its outsized banking sector. I have posted a number of times about the depth of woes in Ireland including the high debt-to-gdp level, the crashing property…

Russia is one country that we do not want to see fall on hard times. It has great geo-strategic power, but a weak economy, declining oil output and revenues and increasingly autocratic rule? Now it is being roiled by the global financial…

Hello again and happy Sunday reading. I have the useful rubbernecking fascination with Bernie Madoff again today. But, my focus is a bit different today. You will see a lot of stories about the UK. In the wake of the massive $11 billion…

Back in November, Bloomberg News was forced to sue the Federal Reserve to gain greater disclosure on how emergency loans were being made to financial institutions and on what collateral was being used. I have followed this story closely…

I continue to be impressed by the absolute magnitude of the Madoff scandal. This Ponzi scheme went on for decades. It is a truly frightening spectacle. See some of the articles below. Otherwise, it's a Potpourri from around the net.…

Another Friday night in America means another bank goes bust. This week, it's two banks: Haven Trust of Georgia nd Sanderson State of Texas. BB&T is stepping in for the deposits at Haven Trust. And Pecos is taking the deposits at…

It's been a month since I updated my list of writedowns and other credit crisis-related news, so I am sure that this list is filled with holes and missing information. Here it goes nonetheless. Below are the writedowns from the previous…