alex s

Good for the Economy That We're Fighting a War...

defense spending up 18.1% over last quarter? that seems like an effort on the part of the republican government to bolster GDP and keep it at 0 growth or positive......failed attempt. Its not a "good thing" that the government is spending money. that's a short term attempt to mask the negative recessionary number probably fueled by election reasons. who is going to vote for Mccain when the incumbent party sat and watched the country fall into a recession? Consumer spending, way down, investment spending not growing, that's where you need to focus that's where growth will come from. not this BS gov spending on defense number. I bet the government spending number on defense contracts as sharply as it expanded this quarter. Why not? It will be a democratic gov against the war next quarter. Its a no lose situation for the republicans, pump money in defense now, if it works keeps gdp growth positive, a plus for mccain's chances, if not, then bleep it, let the dems deal with it later.

FOMC Meeting: Fed Talks Tough on Inflation

How is the fed talking hawkish about inflation?
First of all, the first highlighted paragraph of "differences" was just moved up. its essentially the same talk as last statement. The focus of the statement is "Although downside risks to growth remain, the upside risks to inflation are also of significant concern to the Committee." The language implies parity. Last statement the focus was inflation over growth concerns, here its equal, its pared! They put growth and inflation in the same sentence in two adjoining fragments using words like "although" and "also" Perhaps that's why the equity markets rallied because it signalled there was definitely not going to be a hike in the near term, probably in january. I dunno, prove me wrong but i didn't see this as a hawkish statement, it was a "we're in a tight spot" and don't know where to go statement. Prove me wrong.... and what did bonds do today?

The Latest Victim of the Credit Crunch: Libor

Why are you in deeper trouble when you're charging understated libor +20 and paying understated libor +30? the spread is the same, its not as if lying about libor changes one side of the equation. please explain the logic