Jasper M

The End of Hand Crafted Content

I think the case is overstated a bit - "fast food" content will only prevail when the consumers are complacent enough to be satisfied by it. It is unlikely such content will be as good as more "hand crafted" versions, and the differences will show in trying times.

To give a world analogy, you'll notice that IBM no longer dominates the computer market. I can remember when it did. But the complacency allowing that given went away, and that was that.

I have little doubt that the coming times will breed several generations of consumers of news that will Not be satisfied by "fast food" journalism.

Why Did Investing in Goods and Services Become Less Attractive than Housing?

Author appears to ignore the massive distortions created by tax and banking policy, which artificially diverted billions into real estate through various effective subsidies.
To use his own example, billions did not go into autos, vs. real estate, for example, because there was no federal policy threatening Detroit if they did not make auto loans available to those who could not really afford them, and no tax rule making interest in auto loans deductible.

Matt Taibbi: Obama's Big Sellout

While lack of courage is certainly part of the equation, I never underestimate the inertia of hope - the notion that, if they just stabilize the patient, things might clear up on their own. Unfortunately for the Administration, economics is not emergency medicine, and the current troubles are Not an anomaly, but the logical consequence of past misbehavior (of the same sort).

Understanding Chinese Statistical Data: The Devil Is in the Details

I second Clark, albeit from farther away - I have been reading about asian culture for awhile, and pretty much everyone is on the same sheet of music about, for example, being careful never to phrase a question that someone should answer "no", because that is considered a rude word. Worse, never expect people to admit ignorance of ANYthing.
Frankly, I think this article deals entirely too gently with the issue - these numbers are Pure fairy tales, and I am highly confidant any semblance to actual ground truths.
Unfortunately for them, deceit is a double edged sword: Once everyone realizes they have reason to doubt you, your word mean Nothing.
Not that we're in much better shape . . .

'It's Five Minutes to Midnight for Greece' - Willem Buiter

Since the Eurozone has no central treasury, to back up its central bank, one wonders exactly what they will bail out Greece WITH?
Are we to honestly believe the European Central Bank will Successfully make the rounds of the member parliaments, hat in hand, collecting alms for the more improvident member? The members of those parliaments are subject to election, you know - how well do you think a, say, German politician will fare after approving a handout to an entitled basket-case like Greece?

T. Boone Pickens: Move 18-Wheeler Fleet to Natural Gas

We should listen to Mr. Pickens, as he's Always right when he bets big on energy . . . oh, wait . . . no . . .

Five Charts to Rule Them All: Action in U.S. Treasury Market

The notion that a rise in rates automatically results in hyperinflation is spurious.
A rise in rates would produce rapid chain defaulting through the system, wiping out the credit portion of the money supply (which is Well over 90% of it) much, Much faster than it could be replaced by physical printing of more durable FRNs. The resulting drop in money supply would be profoundly DEflationary, and for some time, as the relatively few remaining dollars would be Much sought after by any surviving debtors.

The Difficult Arithmetic of Chinese Consumption

Good article, and GREAT comment from Mr. Woong!
The chinese are experiencing the worst effects of an obscene combination of communism and state sponsored oligopoly capitalism.
[insert Obama reference of one's choice here]
I fear the best outcome we can hope for is that the inevitable results go far in discrediting both bad ideas.
Hey, I can dream.

The Ugly Decade

I wouldn't succumb to the expectation that the current troubles will constrain themselves to one decade. Oh, no. Even if we properly include the coming grief of 2010 in this "ugly decade", there seems to me plenty of reason to expect sufficient destructive turmoil to keep most financial instruments on their knees for some time afterwards.

The FSB's Big, Bad 30

bbro,
Deposit base, by itself, is not a particularly good measure of system risk.
For example, New York Mellon is a Big bank, but does most of its business as a custodian. That has an inherently lower 'beta', so to speak.
Wells certainly looked scary, and may be again, due to its ingestion of one too many real estate problem children, it is not purported to currently have the kind of derivatives exposure that its fellows on this list do.

Good article.

The Debt Crisis Is Going Public

Re the spammers,
They troll weakly moderated sites over holidays, betting (correctly, in the case observed) that the moderators are spread thin, especially when 'interesting' news lands over the holiday.
You get a fair amount of them every Sunday, for the same reason, but this Thanksgiving was a very special day for them . . .

On topic, I could go on for paragraphs, debunking this authors poorly considered preconceptions, but the pack has already shredded him, so I will just congratulate their work, and move on. good job, fellas!

What Will the U.S. Economy Look Like in 10 Years? Look to Greece

Quibbles:
2022 would be 13 years, not 10.
And I think you are granting the US of D too long a stay. The next 3 years will generate enough outrage to completely overturn the status quo.

Options Trader Outlook: It's Fall-Down Friday, Dubai Cruel World!

I second Screw. Best play on that headline (or any other I've seen in a while).

The New Normal Could Be That Way for a While

Well said.

Face It: The FDIC Is Broke

Mark,
Here's something you and I can agree on.
MOST Americans have negligible savings, that much is documentable.
Personally, I have been drawing down my exposure to the FDIC gradually (started in '06), as I expect the peak of that aspect of the crisis to still be years away. My $ is almost all in Swiss insurance contracts, T-bills, and demand deposits in two of the safest banks in my home state.
So the broke are broke, the wise are gone, what about the rest? Well, historically, people tend to avert their eyes to this sort of thing, until they all agree to start screaming at once.