An Interesting Chart on Job Losses

I ran across the following chart from chartoftheday.com, and found it interesting: http://www.chartoftheday.com/20090703.htm?T As one can see, the current degree of job losses is rather atypical. I would also like to highlight another issue as well.  From a historical perspective, this (purported) recession, that the NBER has classified as having started in December 2007, is …

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Article of Note on the Foreclosure Crisis

I found the following article to be of interest.  It is titled “New Evidence on the Foreclosure Crisis” and is found in The Wall Street Journal, p A13, July 3-5, at this link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124657539489189043.html While I can’t verify his analysis, the article is worth reading. I don’t agree with all of his conclusions, especially his remark that …

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Foreclosures

Here is an interesting New York Times editorial regarding foreclosures.  Please note that I don’t necessarily agree with many of the recommendations, but the editorial does a nice job of summarizing some of the problems: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/opinion/02tue1.html?_r=1 “Solving” our residential real estate problems is going to be most difficult, in my opinion.  It is a very complex …

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Redefaults

This was an interesting editorial in The Wall Street Journal a few days ago concerning the “redefault” rate: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338503008056785.html These statistics are problematical, especially if one believes the economy will stagnate or worsen from this juncture. It also raises the question as to the effectiveness of intervention measures on default rates and housing prices.  Many of the current …

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Rep. Barney Frank interview – my comments

Here is a recent interview of Rep. Barney Frank on CNBC.  I found the first few minutes to be interesting, as well as disconcerting in many ways: http://www.cnbc.com/id/30980892 What nearly everyone, especially the decision-makers in Washington, don’t seem to grasp is the risks inherent in large-scale market interventions.  One question to ask might be, “If large-scale market …

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10-year Treasury Yield

It is interesting that there has been relatively little commentary on the increase of the 10-year Treasury yield. In my opinion the rise is significant in many ways.  Perhaps chief among them is the fact that the yield has risen sharply (to a current 3.46%) despite a large-scale intervention designed to bring yields lower.   This divergence is significant because it …

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