mattupp

Credit Corrosion Continues: Delinquencies Hit Record

In this increase is also the fact getting out that to have any loan mod done by a bank requires the "owner" to go delinquent before the banks bother to work with you. This also reflects the faster growth in write-offs by the banks who are being supported by the govt, so they don't really care to work with the "owners" and will make huge gains IF the market returns (big IF for them) without having to pay back the taxpayers.

Nice work if you can get it...

Rasmussen's economic confidence index falls to a four month low, and is up only nine points from the beginning of the year. "Just 8% of adults rate the economy as good or excellent while 58% say it is in poor shape. Just 24% say the economy is getting better while 51% say it is getting worse. 75% say the U.S. is still in a recession."

I think the disconnect is between Wall St, Main St. AND State St. Apparently, Main depends on Wall and does everything it can to please it, Wall owns State, which it uses to screw Main on the other end. Which street do you live on?

Krugman enlists Goldman's (GS) Jan Hatzius to argue that deficits are the only thing that has saved us from another Great Depression.

That's having the wolf explain to the Shepard why his eating of the sheep is good for the flock.

Love how someone pointed out that the swing from -3.6% to +5.6% is a gain of 9.2%, not GS's 8.2%. Smartest guys in the room?

Is Florida the next California?

Sorta-kinda? I think Florida wasn't nearly as productive as California for decades prior to the recession (4th after CA, TX, & NY), has a smaller and less prestigious public University system than CA, has half the population of CA, but has a somewhat better running state government (as compared to, uh, CA & NY) and is starting to make the turn on bringing new business in to be less dependent on just tourism.

T. Boone Pickens scuttles his plan to build the world's biggest wind farm, which doesn't fly so high with crude under $63 and nat-gas under $3.50. Like a sailboat when the wind dies, alt-energy bubbles can deflate in a hurry.

I think the use of "scuttles" is a bit broad here, in that he's scaling down at the time, and it seems that he's still fulfilling his original GE turbine order for 1,000 Megawatt output, still huge compared to any other wind project in the world so far.

Windsun, I believe his promotion of wind power isn't to reduce the cost of oil, per se, but to reduce the importation of oil and dependence on foreign nations for energy supplies. While developing nations would benefit from our reduction in usage by a lower oil price, we'd benefit from a smaller wallet in the "bad guys" hands.

Jack Welch Somehow Sees Workers Empowered by Crisis

Reading Business Week for financial & business guidance is like reading Cooking Light for medical advice. Currently, Jack Welch's BW column is to business advice as Wolfgang Puck is to medical advice. Useless.

Madoff's Investors Don't Deserve Compensation or Sympathy

Excellent job, very accurate, especially the question on Blackstone... when is that shoe dropping?

Existing Home Sales Haven't Fallen, Despite Gloomy Punditry

Whoa LK, take a Xanax, good to see a different p.o.v., but it's not like the UK contributed anything other than pop artists to the world since the Empire crumbled.

I'm not sure how glad international relief agencies are that donations are down, or how glad China is that their biggest investment is in a "downturn", or how glad the EU is to have no one to help back them from a bearish Russia? Go ask India if their programmers and call centers are still 'on fire', or if they are learning a new language yet?

Yes, U.S. citizens (Canadians are Americans too!) are learning a hard lesson and will continue to face this problem for perhaps a long while, but the alternative is...? Not necessarily and optimist here, but a realist - what other market has developed in place of the U.S.?

On Jun 24 02:47 PM LKofScotland wrote:

>SHUT UP WORTHLESS GREEEDY AMERICANS because the GOOD NEWS IS NOBODY CARES THAT YOUR POOR AND WORTHLESS AND IN FACT IS GLAD YOU ARE, especially not while you throw American soldiers under the bus so you can mouth off about how "those people" got theirs while you didn't.

Existing Home Sales Haven't Fallen, Despite Gloomy Punditry

How about giving away those homes in inventory? Gee, we haven't heard any "Homeless in America" stories lately on the state-run media, but we've got that damned "Habitat for Humanity" people taking potential buyers off the market, adding inventory (does the new owner get to flip that new house?). What a great PR stunt would it be for a bank to give away 100 homes in a 100 days - live, next on ABC! Now make it 500 banks... and 12 months of real estate lottery. Throw in free cars from the inventories of GM & Chrysler dealers. Now we're talking clearing inventory! In this way at least some people (other than politicians, banks and "too big to fail" failures) get something from the bailout of the banks and car companies...

And who among us didn't see this headline and get the flamethrowers out? :)

In a government report today, Japan concedes it's about to be supplanted by China as the world's #2 economy. The report warns against protectionism and proposes Japan take up a new growth path of becoming the world's troubleshooter on climate, energy and other issues.

I guess once the flip happens and US is #2, we can engage in deceptive and unfair trading practices,drop our child labor laws, and forget about environmental and IP protection (in other words get back to a level playing field?) But by then our economy will be a mirror image of China's a state controlled "free market" system.

Bob Pisani thinks retailers are the shorts' new favorite: "It's too risky to short banks, since they have proved they can raise capital, have the government behind them, and are in a healthier position today than they were 6 months ago. If you believe the consumer will remain weak, retail is the logical choice for a short."

Being involved in the retail industry, it has been interesting to see where the money is going, who is "surviving" and who is actually making growth happen, and no, it's not just Dollar General or WM... Check out Buckle and even Saks!

Retail runs on capital markets and you see some banks/funds getting back into financing the retailers, allowing smart retailers to stock items consumers are asking for AND needing.

Billabong just raised new capital, Limited is on the march for new cash, there's still opportunities in the sector...

New Zealand police are looking for a couple that disappeared after Australia's Westpac bank accidentally deposited NZ$10M ($6M) in their account instead of the NZ$10,000 ($6,000) loan they had applied for.

See, just another reason that bank do not need any regulation, they can police themselves better than any outside agency.

China has been shifting its massive stake in U.S. debt out of long-term Treasurys into short-term notes, making it easier to cash out in a hurry if inflation jumps. China is also changing its laws to make it easier for Chinese companies to invest abroad. China now earns more than $50B/year in interest from the U.S. (great infographic)

That should be more than enough to pay back people for their "toxic" Chinese drywall recovery!!! I love how Congress rises to real challenges!

Balancing Oil Supply and Demand: Oil Price Looks Like It's Bottoming

Agree w/fxmaven above, a bit late on the uptake, and with Asian markets starting to develop their own internal demand, this will continue upward pressure through year-end ($75+ bl) and beyond, especially since China is desperately working on developing consumers in non-US markets to find new buyers for their goods.

PS - I'm looking for US/Int'l service co's that cater to/aid in market development in those countries, that will grow with those countries as they develop internal consumer markets.

Fascinating article in this morning's WSJ discusses the pitfalls of the positive-feedback loop inherent in website popularity rankings. Point in case: a recent study proved people will stare into the sky when they see others staring, even when there's nothing there.

But it's not just Bulls that point to the sky, it's Bears that point to the ground as well, a negative feedback loop is true as well. The market relies on gamblers, liars and cheats (investors, ratings agencies, and analysts) to make any movements, up or down, and the rush to "get in early" or "get out early" has always been in place.

By the way, when I see someone or a group staring at the sky, I'll look as well, in case an imminent meteor attack or the Second Coming is occurring, but if nothing of the sort is happening, will get back to business. :)