Standard and Poors had their hands full today cutting credit ratings.  They cut Ireland. But, they also cut Hungary, putting the country just above a junk credit rating.  I don’t think these will be the last sovereign debt ratings downgrades, especially in emerging markets — economies worldwide are deteriorating.
The Brown Brothers Harriman currency group has [...]

In 2 hours I will be on BBC World News Today talking about the recent government actions involving the auto industry. Afterwards, I will have more to say about this here. In the meantime, here is what Barack Obama had to say.

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Dunfermline, the largest uilding society in Scotland was forced into the hands of the Nationwide.  This happened only after the U.K. government was forced to pony up 1.6 billion pounds – not the best of news for Gordon Brown before a major world summit.
As the Times Online says:
The state-backed rescue brings to six the number [...]

Two weeks ago, the Fed roiled bond markets by signalling it would start to purchase Treasury bonds with printed money – the very definition of inflation.  
Now, its the ECB’s turn to show it can inflate with the best of them.  They have adopted extraordinary measures despite the view of many that they have not [...]

Spain is one of the original four bubble economies to implode.  This group includes the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland.  Unfortunately for the Spanish, in the wake of their property crash, things in Spain are looking particularly bleak with unemployment rising, GDP plummeting, and banks like Caja Castilla-La Mancha and property developers like Martinsa Fadesa and Drac [...]

Zero Hedge: Exclusive: AIG Was Responsible For The Banks’ January & February Profitability Basically Citi and BofA may have been telling tall tales about profitability in January and February.
How a Modern Depression Might Look — If the U.S. Gets There – WSJ
Letter to FASB: Don’t Change Mark-to-Market! – Rolfe Winkler
Reflation and How to Exploit It [...]

Has the bear market come to an end? It is certainly hard to say. In January, I called for 10% down in U.S. equities, which is basically where we are now (7900 on the Dow vs. the present 7776). My view has been that we would break through 2002 and 1998 lows [...]

Below is the video clip of U.S. Treasury Secretary defending his bailout plan which the likes of Paul Krugman have called “a plan to rearrange the deck chairs and hope that that keeps us from hitting the iceberg.”

The investors’ money is at risk. They can lose all their money. Now, again, you have to compare [...]

This comes via Edward Hugh at “A Fistful of Euros“:
The governing council of the Bank of Spain has taken the decision to intervene in the operation of the Caja after carrying out an analysis of its financial position, thus taking as read that the negotiations which might have lead to its merger with the Andalucian [...]

Mauldin on Housing? – CR This points out the problems with data analysis during this difficult downturn (hat tip stiletto heels)
The New Hard Times – NY Times Video hat tip Barry Ritholtz
‘Moshi-moshi’ recession – Japan Times You know times are hard when Japanese start giving up their cell phones! The number of cell-phone shipments in [...]