Archive - 2011 - Blog entry

The overwhelming majority of media content being created now in 2011/2012 (film, television & music) is being BLINDLY financed with hopes that NEW reliable and profitable media streams will emerge quickly before the "old" income streams completely dry-up.

It was self-defense! Those skinny students must have been terrifying to those poor "peace officers" in riot gear ...

Toyota and Honda are planning to export U.S.-made vehicles to Korea. But to what banana-republic levels will the dollar and real wages have to sink before U.S. manufacturing is competitive with China?

Indeed, the MF Global failure suggests that the US and EU banking systems may be facing a far larger problem than even the most bearish analysts suspect.

The ramifications of the “set up” are rather significant.

The answer to the question “How to Stop the Drop in Home Values” is not a matter of knee jerk reactions, more moral hazard, bad policy pushed through on a populist wind, or a problem you solve by principal reductions.

Yeah, that's right! I said it. They CAN'T TRADE!!! Haven't I proven my point yet?

The Fat Lady Singeth, yet no one is listening!!!

The notion of more austerity and  economic growth solving Italy’s debt trap is the pinnacle of silly season.

"I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the EURO."-- George Socrates

To put US household debt levels into a historical perspective, in order for US households to return to their long-term average for leverage ratios and their historic relationship to GDP growth we’d need to write off between $4-4.5 TRILLION in household debt (an amount equal to about 30% of total household debt outstanding).

For years I have warned of the impending European collapse. Now, as it is happening, we still have banks getting away with nonsensical 60% writedowns on essentially worthless debt. LGD > 100+% - You ain't seen the worst of it, not by a long shot!

More silly stuff from D.C.

All you need to read.

Italian borrowing costs reached breaking point on Wednesday after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to resign failed to raise optimism about the country's ability to deliver on long-promised economic reforms.

Italian 10-year bond yields shot above the 7 percent level that is widely deemed unsustainable, reflecting investors' concerns that they may not get their money back, a fear that also showed up in a jump in the cost of insuring against Italian debt default.