Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke held the first-ever press conference. By most accounts, the event was anticlimactic. However, I was able to reaffirm what I had already believed [...]
Markets began the week nervous about a large supply of US Treasuries to be auctioned. The main worry was of higher rates if demand for the new debt proved thin. With so much [...]
I am an optimist. I believe that things in the future will generally be better and better over time. I believe that Capitalism and Democracy are the best economic and [...]
The S&P Financials Index is up 75% from its low on March 6, 2008. The KBW Bank Index, which consists of 24 national money center and leading regional banking [...]
The S&P 500 rose 6.6% yesterday in reaction to the details of Treasury’s plan, called the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), to help banks rid their balance [...]
Stocks are down sharply today following Treasury Secretary Geithner’s speech on the financial bailout. This is our attempt to explain the reaction. We see several possible [...]
This morning, the government reported that non-farm payrolls fell 598,000 in January versus the consensus expectation of a 540,000 drop. The unemployment rate rose to 7.6% [...]
There is a lot riding on Tim Geithner’s speech next week. It seems that momentum for a new, large-scale bank bailout or implementation of a “bad bank” structure may be [...]