It looks like it may be nearly impossible to find the black boxes though.
Month: June 2009
Doubling Down on a Failed Strategy
Option ARMS, NegAm, and other forms or risky, exotic loans are making a comeback as 30 year fixed loan rates.
It’s amazing how quickly some lessons are unlearned.
Franken-Coleman Finally Before Minnesota Supreme Court
Hopefully, this is the end game, it’s been 8 bloody months.
A Distinction Without a Difference
It appears that Anthony Taguba is now denying that he has any knowledge as to whether or not the photos suppressed by Barack Obama are rape photos.
He’s not denying that he saw photos of rape of women and boys, along with photos rape by instrumentality, he’s just denying any specific knowledge as to whether or not these specific photos are the same.
So there are rape photos, but the 44 photos that the ACLU has filed a freedom of information act about might not be them.
Economics Update
Well, the Euros are not doing well with unemployment, hitting 9.2%, which is not as bad as it sounds, because the EU’s count is more accurate, and so generally excludes fewer people from the unemployment statistics, and because the social safety net is better there.
We have some good news in real estate, with pending existing home sales jumping, though the numbers are still awful, and large proportion of them are distressed sales.
Still, the most recent numbers on construction spending are grim, and you can see that it looks like non residential construction is due to start falling too.
Still the home sales number kept profit taking against oil to a minimum.
The dollar is getting interesting, as in the curse, “May you live in interesting times,” over the past few weeks. It hit another low for 2009:, and there is active talk about countries moving to some other currency, typically the Euro, Russia’s idea of some sort of “non western” reserve currency being a pipe dream.
Air France Plane with 228 Aboard Missing Over South Atlantic
Signs of the Apocalypse
Richard Bruce Cheney has admitted that he was wrong:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney disavowed intelligence he once cited to suggest that then-Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein collaborated with al-Qaeda to stage the Sept. 11 attacks.
Cheney said today that information by the Central Intelligence Agency of collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaeda on Sept. 11 “turned out not to be true.” Still, Cheney said a longstanding relationship existed between Hussein and terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, that justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Not only is he admitting error, he is doing so on a signature issue.
I have no clue as to what is going on. First, he embarks on his “human snarl tour,” in which he says that he is right about everything, and now he is backing off of his biggest lie.
Either there are wheels within wheels beyond my understanding, or he’s throwing small strokes, and I cannot figure out which.
Economics Update
The OECD has released its GDP figures for the 1st quarter, and they are not good, down 2.1% for the quarter, and down 4.2%year over year.
Also, consumers in the US are continuing to explore the paradox of thrift, with consumption down and savings up, even though there was a bump in income.
Of course, the financial press is optimistic on the fact that the ISM manufacturing index is the highest it has been in 9 months, only the number, 42.8, still signals further contraction, but for the financial press, the fact that the 2nd derivative is up means that prosperity is just around the corner.
The Wall Street Journal is selling the fact that corporate profits rose for the 1st time in two years in the same way.
Personally, I’m more concerned about signs of increasing interest rates and inflation, like the recent surge in 10-year treasuries, and the fact that retail gasoline broke $2.50/gal nationally this weekend.
With oil breaking $68/bbl, even a long time in the doldrums is going to have energy prices rising.
Still the traders are optimistic, which is why the dollar fell to its lowest level this year, there is less demand for a safe haven.
GM and Citi Have been Kicked off the Dow Jones Industrial Average
They will be replaced by Cisco and Travelers.
Interestingly enough, Travelers was owned by Citi until spun off a few years ago.
Strange times, indeed.
So GM Went Bankrupt
They have filed for bankruptcy protection, and while I have no illusions that this will be as smooth or quick as Chrysler’s bankruptcy, the stakes are far larger, and the consequences of a mis-step will be industry wide, it looks like they got their ducks in a row.
They got most of the bond holders on board, they got a deal from the UAW, and a deal was cut to sell Opel, GM’s European division, though the Treasury almost killed that:
For the Magna deal to work, U.S. officials must abandon their opposition to German demands that Opel assets be temporarily placed in a trust to protect them from GM creditors.
I agree with Michael Moore’s take on all this though, it could be the start of something better, but only if the US government takes an active role in the running of the company, and redirect the unused industrial infrastructure into things like mass transit and alternative energy.
Of course, the free market Mousketeers like Larry Summers, co-chair of the auto task force, are determined that this won’t happen, so instead, we will end up with something still dysfunctional, just a bit smaller.