Blogs

Late last week it was reported that Goldman made its first commitment to Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lending. For the uninitiated, this may seem like a good thing. Indeed, the papers pointed to the benefits of an additional $500 million in small business loans in today’s economy. But to those experienced in the industry, something more sinister may be afoot. Such commitments rarely mean anything, and are usually merely the publicly-visible component of a successful community organizer holdup scheme.

1-4 Family First Lien portfolios for the Top 4 lenders deteriorate in the 3rd Quarter. Early Stage delinquencies climb noticeably.

Gold futures rally $25 in overnight trading up to $1200.50 -- exceeding PM end-of-year target of $1200 -- before retreating to $1195. How many gold bugs does it take to change a light bulb?

Rating agencies are now getting kudos for actually doing their job? What's the mainstream media world coming to?

In addition to taking a big chunk out of individuals' 401(k)s, last fall's market meltdown left 92% of corporate pension plans underfunded at year's end, according to a study by investment consultant Wilshire Associates. As bad as that sounds, it pales in comparison to the shortfalls in public pension plans.

Just a thought

An empirical analysis of the most recent NY Fed and FDIC loan loss data shows things getting materially worse, despite the $75 billion foreclosure prevention efforts, quantitative easing, zero interest rate policy, and hundreds of billions of dollars of injected liquidity and MBS purchases. What can we expect with even the slightest blip upwards in interest rates... Complete mayhem among many dead banks would be my first guess.

Did you know that the tax code ENCOURAGES high levels of leverage?

Whatever you think about the leaked emails showing that "tricks" were used to "hide the decline" in the climate data, and the fact that the original source data showing historical climate information was destroyed, you should agree on two things.

A Detailed Technical Update of the S&P cash, S&P futures, DJIA cash, Gold futures, the VIX and the US Dollar Index ... as well as a look into the "Crown Jewel" of Dubai

Global warming scam exposed as scientific fraud; Copenhagen summit approaches, Abu Dubai goes bust; financing problems spread to governments, Washington insists on Colombia 'full spectrum' base, new H1N1 bypasses adaptive immunity, Gibbs' Virology paper suggests lab origin, US mint suspends sales of Eagles, Bernanke to run his mouth on Thursday.

World trade volumes grew sharply in the third quarter of this year, data from the Dutch CPB research institute showed on Friday, in a further sign that the global economy is pulling out of crisis.

Did you hear about Citi's $8 billion dollar loan to Dubai?

What could possibly connect Best Buy, Paul Krugman and the carry trade? The answer is is that everything is connected.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive”...ourselves. With apologies to Sir Walter Scott.