Archive - Apr 3, 2009

Larry Summers, who was not only Tim Geithner's predecessor as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury (from 1999 to 2001), but also the 27th President of Harvard University, and is currently the top White House economic advisor and serves as a director of the National Economic Council, apparently has a fond place in his heart and bank account for his most recent employer, $30 billion rocket scientist infested hedge fund D. E. Shaw (nothing like signing an NDA before conducting interviews).

Larry Summers, who was not only Tim Geithner's predecessor as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury (from 1999 to 2001), but also the 27th President of Harvard University, and is currently the top White House economic advisor and serves as a director of the National Economic Council, apparently has a fond place in his heart and bank account for his most recent employer, $30 billion rocket scientist infested hedge fund D. E. Shaw (nothing like signing an NDA before conducting interviews).

"The last shall be first."Ah, to be a Russia focused hedge fund (for once). Enjoy it while you can. In the meantime, the big boys are doing ok, with no major surprises in either direction.

The jobless rate differential between people with less than a high school education (13.3%) and college grads (4.3%) hits a 17 year high. This is pretty bad news for working class people who are really affected by marginal changes in mortgage rates and credit availability.

FINalternatives reports that in a startling development, billionaire Tom Hicks, founder of HM Capital (f/k/a Hicks Muse Tate), and subsequently left the private equity firm in 2006, has defaulted on $525 million of loans. According to FINalts "Hicks Sports Group, which owns baseball’s Texas Rangers and hockey’s Dallas Stars, failed to make its interest payment on $525 million in syndicated bank loans on Monday. The group is now in talks with its lenders about a forbearance."

John Williams, who runs the great Shadow Government Statistics site, presents the true numbers behind today's "seriously flawed BLS payroll reporting." The upside bias coming out of the BLS is almost scandalous: one wonders how much "push from above" there is to concoct these numbers.

John Williams, who runs the great Shadow Government Statistics site, presents the true numbers behind today's "seriously flawed BLS payroll reporting." The upside bias coming out of the BLS is almost scandalous: one wonders how much "push from above" there is to concoct these numbers.

John Williams, who runs the great Shadow Government Statistics site, presents the true numbers behind today's "seriously flawed BLS payroll reporting." The upside bias coming out of the BLS is almost scandalous: one wonders how much "push from above" there is to concoct these numbers.

Steve Liesman corrects him that the sophisticated term is "monetizing the debt" and we have a race to the bottom as the ponzi goes global.

Both are correct.

Everyone in the world prints money and levers up using garbage as collateral, everyone has a massive fail. In the words of Dave Rosenberg "full stop."

Earlier Barney started war on Mark To Market. Now he is expanding to two fronts, crossing the Volga river deep into republican territory. Just want to pointed out that the whole two-front thing did not work out too well for Germany.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the increase in unemployment in the architecture and engineering occuptions has doubled from 2007 to 2008! This is roughly 4 times the average change in unemployment for all people aged 16 and over, which was 26.1% at the end of 2008. This statistic was relevant when total unemployment was 5.8%. With today's reading of 8.5% unemployment, all bets are off as to what on earth is going on in the U.S. labor market.

Nothing like a Friday update from Dave and his recap on why the Kool Aid is flowing freely. Some of the main points presented in the weekly recap. Please read this before you buy even one more stock.

We see a very uncertain future

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnX-D4kkPOQ&hl=en&fs=1]

hat tip reader anonymous

Despite the financial stocks jumping the shark yesterday, and investors gobbling it all up happily, Richard Ramsden of GS says this is just a load of hot air.

Despite the financial stocks jumping the shark yesterday, and investors gobbling it all up happily, Richard Ramsden of GS says this is just a load of hot air.