Category Archives: Finance

Cleansing and Reforming our Financial System

Why don’t we just admit that the current financial and regulatory system is dysfunctional? We face two fundamental problems. First, we need to clean the financial system — close weak banks more aggressively, encourage bankruptcies/foreclosures, and free good assets held … Continue reading


Navigating the Jobs Morass

The economy is in much more serious trouble than news reports, policy makers and pundits might lead you to believe. Continue reading


Is it sustainable?

There are two key questions: (1) is the improvement in the job picture sustainable and (2) if it is, how long will it take get back where we started in December 2007? While there is considerable disagreement in terms of … Continue reading


The 10-Handle

Amazing the difference one day makes in the employment outlook. Yesterday, the market shot up because “only” 512,000 applied for initial claims — down from 532,000 the previous week. We saw banners: “Employment Situation Improvement,” “We Have Turned the Corner”, … Continue reading


Mission Accomplished?

Don’t be misled by the 3.5% GDP growth in the third quarter. Continue reading


Pothole or Ditch?

ditch

Is anybody listening out there? Those ‘in the know’ expected 180,000 job losses. Some thought 150,000. Optimists thought job gains. In the end, we bled 283,000 jobs. It was no surprise to me. The message has been clear in the … Continue reading


One Year After Lehman

There is a lot of finger pointing going on one year after Lehman declared bankruptcy. Most of those fingers are pointing to Lehman and the way the bankruptcy was handled. However, that is a very simplistic view of what happened … Continue reading


The Eye of the Hurricane

 Given the decrease job losses and other favorable (or less bad) news, it appears as if the economic storm is abating — or is it the calm that you feel when the eye of the hurricane passes over? There is … Continue reading


The Prime Dilemma

Courtesy of flickr/Jeff Turner

Just because the unemployment rate dropped from 9.5% to 9.4% does not mean we are out of danger. This is how I think the economy will unfold. The scenario is consistent with what I have been posting for the last … Continue reading


Systemic Risk Factor #1: Jobs

On June 19, 2009, a premiere economic consulting firm (not to be named) forecasted a job loss of 275,000 in June. To me, this seemed odd. The May drop of “only” 345,000 jobs (unrevised) seemed like noisy data. There was … Continue reading