The Radford Free Press – Page 419 – All life is problem solving.

Economics / GDP, jobs, recovery, stimulus, unemployment /

Unemployment “Trap”

January 15, 2010

I wasn’t going to post today because there is very little new to report other than the fact that consumer confidence edged up slightly, but well below the kind of increase the markets were looking for. Something tells me that there is an emerging disconnect between what the markets perceive is going on, and what […]

Economics / AIG, Ambac, credit default swaps, Federal Reserve Board, Goldman Sachs, MBIA, mortgage backed securities /

Did The Banks Cheat or Break The Law?

January 14, 2010

My comment yesterday about Goldman Sachs dubious business practice of hedging against investments it was selling to investors seems to reflect a more widely held view than I realized – it popped up in Gillian Tett’s normally sober commentary in the Financial Times today.. Recall the issue: in the fairly narrow confines of the mortgage […]

Economics / GDP, inventories, jobs, recovery, retail sales, unemployment /

Jobs and Sales: No Improvement?

January 14, 2010

Well we have two of our regular reports and neither is particularly encouraging. Sad to say, but we seem stuck in neutral at the moment. First: the weekly new claims for unemployment data was released this morning and tells us that claims rose 11,000 last week to 444,000. This is a small movement in the […]