Nasty (or not) economic news

We're F**ked it's that simple!!!!!

I like your exclamation points McHale. You've gone even further than me, I at least posted Weiss saying that I hoped he was out of his f'n mind. Alas, you're probably right. He probably is, and he's probably right. Cheers, the weekend's almost upon us.

I don't know that I'd call this news nasty necessarily (although it probably will be), but for those who were interested in the Moyers/Black interview, Moyers is interviewing Simon Johnson tonight, a well-respected economist whose name is popping up with increasing frequency, and who sides with Stiglitz/Hoenig on banking issues.

http://baselinescenario.com/2009/04/24/the-next-big-hearing-bill-moyers-tonight/

perhaps you may want to restart this thread or for that matter your own blog along the lines of "General News About the Economy." I, for one, am very appreciative of the links and insights you are providing and urge others to follow them and reach their own opinions. frankly, as i've tried in vain to explain (perhaps at times a bit sarcastically), to me this whole situation has gone way beyond bulls, bears and the price of real estate.

Perhaps you're right. I'll restart it when I get something newsworthy with a more accessible name.
Thanks for the support. I'd really like to find encouraging news, but I haven't seen anything objectively positive yet. I'll keep looking.

as you have noted before, no news will be the signal to come before good news (for real) can arrive. as this point, i am still of the (perhaps naive) belief that the more real information people get, the faster we can come to terms with where we really are and start to build from there.

as a furniture maker up here said to me last fall (before the real shit hit the fan) regarding gas prices; " just tell me what they are...i can live with and around it wherever the price is...what i cannot deal with is $5 a gallon two months ago and now 2.50 a gallon. i am prepared to make the decisions i need to but how can i under these circumstances?"

says it all to me. and of course it applies times a thousand to the price of real estate. people need to be able to buy and live there with the reasonable expectation of modest gain or loss not boom or bust.

Interesting comments by Galbraith on the current conditions, what the recovery might look like if we continue on this path, and what he sees as some possibilities for averting disaster. I agree with his position in theory, although the political will to spend this much on the people would be impossible to generate at this point. The last two paragraphs give a very even-handedly written doomsday scenario that should instill some humility.

http://www.newamericancontract.net/james-k-galbraith-recovery-come

grabbed this quote: "Treasury should change its bank plan, recognize that too-big-to-fail is also too-big-to- regulate, and too-big-to-regulate is also too-big-to-manage. A financial institution that cannot be controlled by its own top leadership is an intrinsically dangerous thing."

If that doesn't describe Citi, I don't know what does.

all of the majors, really, when you think about it, allowing that much power over our entire way of life to fall into the hands of anyone is akin to having an auction for nuclear weapons.

bill ackman and joe stiglitz will be on Charlie Rose tonight. another great possibility. i'll post the interviews tomorrow, for those of you who have a life, would like to see them and won't be watching them tonight (surprisingly, that would include me).

just saw the moyers....don't know what to say.

cc, just got home from dinner. worth watching?

I saw a great piece today on Johnson. I'll have to try to find it.

cc, I just read your earlier comment about uncertainty, and that is it in a nutshell. if there is uncertainty at some point people, and corporations, just start planning for the worst. and the worst thus follows.

moyers is definitely worth watching.

Here's the Moyers interview with Johnson/Perino. Both were very impressive. It's an hour, but it's a good slog.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04242009/watch.html