Investors appeared to absolutely love the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s plan to subsidise private sector purchases of toxic bank assets. The Dow closed up nearly 500 points, or 6.8%. The S&P closed up seven percent. The move gave stocks in New York their best two-week gain since 1938, according to Bloomberg.
March 24th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 8 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "mortgage"
Feds to Buy Government Debt
Yes, dear reader, when Richard Nixon cut the link between the dollar and gold, the world has been using a money system that is, to put it in its best light, experimental. The last experiments of this sort – on anything like this scale – were conducted in the 18th century. The Banque Generale was set up by that rogue, John Law, to buy up the debt of France – of which there was plenty.
March 20th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Stress Testing the Banks
Last week we repeated John Robb’s idea that while the regulators are stress testing the banks (something the market has already done, if you look at the price of bank stocks) the regulators themselves are being stress tested. Or, more to the point, if GM and Citibank and AIG are failing because they are too large, complex, and poorly managed, then what about even larger organisations with even poorer structural finances like, say, the United States government?
March 10th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Here Come The Commies
Stocks in the U.S. were up overnight. Here in Australia, the blind are following where the deaf boldly lead. But is anyone listening? Or is everyone too busy hoping? What we’re talking about are Ben Bernanke’s comments. The news headlines read that he predicted the recession will end later this year and the American economy will recover in 2010. But that’s not exactly what he said.
February 25th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | Continued
Don’t Pay Your Debt: A Page from the Fed’s Playbook
Perhaps I am just a stupid guy who cannot see that he is being handed a terrific opportunity, as Ms. Dungan agrees, “Finally something that we can all get behind: Don’t pay your bills. It’s not my idea, although it has appeal. It’s the Fed’s and it’s the cornerstone of the new Homeownership Preservation Policy”…
February 11th, 2009 | Mogambo Guru | 0 comments | Continued
A $4 Trillion ‘Big Bang’
In The Monthly, Rudd plants a Neo-Marxist flag in the ground of the current debate with the kind of jargon-laden elitist preening that makes academic critics of the free market (who’ve never spent a day in the business world creating value) so nauseating. (…)Why not proclaim, since he is apparently in the position to make such proclamations, that the experiment in paper money and the deliberate policy of inflation it implies is theft?…
February 2nd, 2009 | Dan Denning | 21 comments | Continued
The Two Pillars of the U.S. Mortgage Market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Wobbled Again Yesterday
“Thousands give up on home ownership dream,” reports Eli Greenblat in today’s Age. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday that the number of new home loans for owner occupied housing fell by nearly 8% in May, and by 25% in the last four months. Builders aren’t building, even though immigrants are still coming to Australia in droves.
July 10th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
More Cash and Credit: How the Economy got Here in the First Place
This time, the financial authorities aren’t even opening the medicine cabinet. They’re afraid the patient couldn’t stand the treatment. Instead, they’re administering the old elixir that got the economy into serious problems in the first place – more cash and credit.
March 5th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Housing Decline Will Put 10 Million Homeowners Upside Down, With More Mortgage Than House
Housing decline will put 10 million homeowners upside down, with more mortgage than house. It will lead to collapsing credit…defaults…and huge losses to lenders. It will also bring about a big cutback in consumer spending and unavoidably push the United States into a deep recession.
February 21st, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Barack Obama Promises Voters That He Will Deal With Economic Matters in a Level-Headed, Pragmatic Way
Meanwhile, from the 50 states, the Democrats’ own darling, Barack Obama, promises voters that he will deal with economic matters in a level-headed, pragmatic way. He apparently had no economic program of his own, so he took Ms. Clinton’s.
February 19th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
