China is holding its own in regards to economic growth because the government is pumping massive amounts of government money into the economy in order to make up for the loss in trade.  What does this mean for China, Chinese shares and the global economy?
The Bloomberg video below makes the bullish case for China and [...]

FT.com – How libertarian dogma led the Fed astray – Henry Kaufman
The original Dr. Doom speaks. Hat tip Yves Smith. “The Federal Reserve has been hobbled by at least two major shortcomings that were primarily responsible for the current and several previous credit crises. Its failure to spot the importance of changing financial markets and [...]

The leaks about who failed the stress tests are already starting.  Who got a big fat ‘F’?  Apparently, Citi and BofA for starters.  But is that any surprise?
Regulators have told Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. that the banks may need to raise more capital based on early results of the government’s so-called stress [...]

The German car maker Daimler wants to put the Chrysler chapter behind it, so it will give up its remaining 19.9% stake and forgive all remaining loans. See BBC story.
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Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Meeting is this coming Saturday 2 May 2009 in Omaha, NE at the Qwest Center (details in pdf here).  Given the financial turmoil and all of the hubaloo around Berkshire’s credit rating, it should be a very interesting affair.
In conjunction with the Annual meeting, Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett’s son Peter is hosting [...]

I showed you a video from CNBC in a previous post detailing how Swine Flu spreads in humans. Here is a second look at what Swine Flu is all about in three videos from the Wall Street Journal.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says “stay calm.”

In this much-talked about Charlie Rose roundtable with Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz joined by Bill Ackman of Pershing Square, Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times and Kate Kelly of the Wall Street Journal, these experts discuss the government-administered stress tests. Joseph Stiglitz has been particularly negative about the Obama Administration’s banking crisis [...]

FT Alphaville » Just how big a problem is falling capacity utilisation?
Nice reference to Austrian School economist Josef Steindl. “Former commodity mega-bulls Goldman Sachs are expecting markets to continue to pull back from current levels in the near term as “fundamentals are not yet stable enough to support higher prices””

Bronte Capital: Biota – a wild [...]

As the possibility of bankruptcy draws nearer, General Motors is moving to sell non-core assets and to broker arrangements with bondholders and unions alike which will keep it out of bankruptcy. In a 9AM press conference today, new General Motors head Fritz Henderson announced a debt-for-equity swap offer for GM bondholders which would cut [...]

After a good run-up in the last month, the Mexican Peso is getting crushed in the currency markets today.  How much of the pullback is a result of the news regarding Swine Flu and how much is technical, due to the prior run up, is hard to identify.  Nevertheless, the outbreak will have a negative [...]