ShareToday I saw two blurbs about Eastern Europe which I want to pull together with a bit of added commentary about the automakers in the U.S.  The first blurb had to do with the Baltics and their probable downgrade to junk by the ratings agencies.  This is what Win Thin, a Senior Currency Strategist at [...]

Ten-year treasuries are yielding about 3.15% now, that is a significant increase from a yield of just over 2% in December. I for one, thought that Treasuries were in a bubble at 2% (See my post, “Treasurys are in a bubble” from December 08). The thing is I also thought the economy was so weak and the Fed so manipulative that the bubble would get even worse. Bad call. Of course, that didn’t happen.

ShareI will be on the BBC World Service at 2PM ET talking about the Chrysler bankruptcy. First will be a television interview and then a radio interview. I will post the clips if and when they become available.

ShareAttorney Angela Somers, Senior Counsel at Allen & Overy talks about Chrysler struggling to avoid bankruptcy.  She is an expert in bankruptcy and she is sounding a lot less upbeat about a quick and painless process than Obama.  She even mentions the word “liquidation.” 
Not to doom-monger here, but it is pretty scary stuff. On [...]

I have done my part over the past few weeks to write that I thought jobless claims signaled the potential for recovery. I started the drumbeat in late March. Here are the posts:

ShareThe first bank nationalization in German history is about to take place. At issue is Hypo Real Estate (HRE), a troubled Munich-based company that lends to commercial property developers and to build offices, hotels, roads, airports, you name it.
This issue has been building for nearly 7 months. Back in late September, just after Lehman [...]

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Obama has what he needs to restructure Chrysler – Telegraph
President Barack Obama has what he needs to restructure Chrysler. With banks holding 70pc of Chrysler’s secured debt agreeing to the US Treasury’s 30 cents on the dollar offer, the reorganisation can move ahead.

FT.com – Bank of Japan slashes forecasts
The Bank of Japan said on [...]

ShareAfter a blip in the data last month, Nationwide is reporting that U.K. house prices have resumed their fall.  However, for the second month in a row, the annual price fall has slowed.  In March, the fall was 15.7%. This month we see only 15.0% compared to prices in April 2008.
Fionnuala Earley, the Nationwide’s Chief [...]

ShareIt looks like Chrysler is going down for the count. A few piggish bondholders decided to play chicken with the Federal Government. They are going to lose this game and, consequently, lots of money too. Chrysler and the Obama Administration did not have a strong hand. Their best alternative to a negotiated [...]

ShareThis is from BofA’s website:
Bank of America Corporation today announced the results of management and shareholder proposals at the company’s 2009 annual meeting…
All 18 directors were elected to the board by comfortable margins. In addition, management proposals regarding executive compensation and the retention of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC as the company’s independent accounting firm were approved.
Seven shareholder [...]