Tony Petroski

Bank failure #116: United Security Bank of Sparta, Georgia.

Real comment.

Jobs Still Disappearing, But Confidence Is Returning

Take it easy on the Beach Pundit. He's been optimistic all of the time and right most of the time. Animal spirits are generated by such optimism.

I could help but laugh at the title of the article: "Jobs Still Disappearing but Confidence Returning." Who picked that one?

This is from the Beach Pundit and it's powerful:

"It's terribly unfortunate that the Obama administration dumped so much "stimulus" money down a black hole earlier this year, when cuts in marginal tax rates could have unleashed the power of the private sector instead of redistributing a trillion dollars from the haves to the have-nots."

Mr. Pundit: Stay optimistic.

A Global Problem with No Solution

This is from the article quoting Mr. Mohammed:

"The best defence against these outcomes is early recognition and coordinated action. Key economic powers must shape their expectations and policy strategies to the changed contours of the global economy. They must also actively manage policy changes at the national and multilateral level in a way that broadens the provision of global public goods."

This can't be the best Keynesianism and demand-side economics can offer. Because if it is, I'm turning in my We are all Keynesians Now card.

You've had more than a year. Unemployment is over 10%. The G-20 has issued 1413 memos. I guess it will have to get back to making things profitable for those who produce stuff.

Bond Expert: Friday Wrap

From Mr. Jansen:

"(After meeting them I feel I cannot refer to them as Timothy Geithner and his minions.)"

That's OK, but that still leaves "subalterns."

Bond Expert: Friday Outlook

The madman weighs in here too.

He's the Dos Equis man of finance.

Normally a name-dropper, he's instead become a (help me here...the opposite of name-dropper...humble?) rubber of elbows. Cecelia the cleaning lady could not write this letter. It takes real talent to produce copy like this day in and day out.

Stay thirsty my friend.

At the Bull-Bear Crossroads

Mr. Mark has a solid technical grasp on this market. Good article.

Nothing about socialism to react to.

Nathaniel C. I feel sorry for you. But better than that, I have advice: Don't short into a bull market. (No one felt sorry for me last year when I went long into a bear market).

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders introduces legislation that would give Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner 90 days to compile a list of banks, funds and insurers deemed too big to fail, and then break them up within a year.

Did it have to be the socialist and did it have to take more than a year to finally get around to this matter?

In the old days, says Andrew Haldane of the BoE's Financial Stability unit, bad bankers were executed - effective, if not modern. He has some more straightforward prescriptions for bank reform, including leverage limits and changes to capital risk-weighting and structure.

A funny line, but bankers (in England) weren't executed, even in the old days. On the other hand, Chinese managers who run afoul of the current regime are never heard from again.

Nassim Taleb, on a panel with IMF Deputy Managing Director Takatoshi Kato, loses his cool: "Before the discussion he gave us a PowerPoint lecture showing the IMF projections for 2010, 2011, ..., 2014. I could not control myself and got into a state of rage. I told the audience that the next time someone from the IMF shows you projections for some dates in the future, to show us what they PROJECTED for 2008 and 2009 in 2004, 2005, ..., and 2007."

The ultimate warrior. Is there video?

A new rule that caps the interest rates paid to depositors by banks deemed "not well capitalized" will likely accelerate the rate of bank failures. The cap - 0.75% above the U.S. average - is meant to prevent weaker banks from driving up costs for the rest of the industry.

We know this doesn't end well, but if you can cap banker's pay you can cap interest rates and then you can cap...

Sources say Brian Moynihan, head of Bank of America's (BAC) consumer banking unit and a contender to succeed CEO Ken Lewis, has agreed to testify before Congress about his role in the Merrill Lynch takeover. Moynihan's testimony could center on why previous general counsel Timothy Mayopoulos was given the boot, and what legal advice he gave to Ken Lewis prior to his meeting with the board.

We were told earlier that nobody was interested in this job.

In a brief reaction to a "sobering" jobs report, President Obama said he's examining new measures to spur growth and ran off a list of five: road/bridge investment, energy retrofitting, additional tax cuts for businesses to create jobs, boosting credit to small businesses and support for exporters.

At last. The shovel-ready projects we've been hearing about.

Does Steve Jobs Deserve Fortune's "CEO of the Decade" Award?

Jobs deserves the title and his health and other issues are his own business.

A curious commencement speech. "I dropped out and now look, I'm up here lecturing you folks."

Buffett's Burlington Buy Is Really a Bet on China

From the article:

"Not only can BNSF transport goods to port for export to China, but on the return trip it can drop off inventory from China at every Wal-Mart (WMT) from L.A. to Chicago."

Huh?

Fannie Mae's Deal: Rent Your Home from the Government

I'm with Mr. Mark on this one.

Mr. Mark: The spell required you to say "there's no place like home."

In the lesser-known "Oz-II, Dorothy Lingers in the Field of Poppys," the chant was "there's no place like a rental home."