Frontrunning: April 8

• Jonathan Weil: How $1 trillion time bomb posts a phony profit (Bloomberg)
• Jobless recovery becomes more jobless and less recovery: initial claims spike by 18k to 460,000, miss expectations by 25k (Bloomberg)
• Ken Rogoff Op-Ed: Bubbles lurk in government debt (FT)
• Investors playing defense heighten Greek debt woes (WSJ)
• Early Easter boosts March retail sales (Reuters) as consumer buy trinkets with money saved from not paying mortgage or credit cards
• With oil surging, the old merger rumor is back: US Airways, United in talks again and again (WSJ, Reuters); in the meantime US Airways prepares to allow standing-only passengers on its flights
• Geithner travels to China bearing oilve branch (Bloomberg, Market News)
• Bending, not bowing: the Chinese case for a stronger, suppler currency (Economist)
• Paul Volcker, inflationist (IBD)
• China is reportedly set to revise currency policy (NYT)
• Miracle economy gives "pilot" lessons to bankers (Bloomberg)
• The Community Reinvestment Act and the Economics of Lending in Lower-Income Neighborhoods (Cleveland Fed)
• NYT editorial, so no surprise it smells like Krugman: We need to extend unemployment benefits (NYT)

Comments

[docj]

Jobless recovery becomes more jobless and less recovery: initial claims spike by 18k to 460,000, miss expectations by 25k

The MSM of course reports this development as "unexpected" - which is rapidly becoming the single most overused word in the entire history of the English language.

[ZackAttack]

I think the expecters we have really suck and we need new ones.  

[mark456]

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[hedgeless_horseman]

Geithner, Wang Issue Statement

The U.S. Treasury secretary and China's vice premier issued statements saying the sides had exchanged views on bilateral relations and the global economy, but it didn't mention currency.

Currency?  Why would they talk about currency?

[docj]

Oh, I'm sure they talked about currency, but my guess is that the conversation went something like this:

Turbo Timmy: I'd like to bring up the subject of currency...

< blatant political-incorrectness >

Chinese counterpart, interrupting: You no talk about our currency, and we no blow-up your 10-year bond auction, okey-dokey round-eye?

< /blatant political-incorrectness >

TT: Uh, okey-dokey.

[Dark Space]

You lose credibility by leading with a story by Weil - he has mastered taking MSM headlines, putting what initially feels like some tangible "deeper" research around them, but screwing up the facts in the process. So, it "sounds" good, but a critical read of his articles quickly reveal that there just isn't that much there.

[lsbumblebee]

Very interesting article at iTulip regarding the silver price manipulation:

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?p=156095#post156095