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Mega-Bear Quartet

Sunday, November 30, 2008 | 03:02 PM

Doug Short overlays the 4 major bear markets of the past centruy onto one chart. Its a comparison of today's S&P 500, the Dow post 1929, the Nikkei post 1989, and the NASDAQ after the tech bubble:

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Finding Holiday Uses for Stock Shares

Thursday, November 27, 2008 | 07:45 PM

in Consumer Spending

Amusing CNBC.com piece about what you can buy with your near worthless stock shares. For example, a single share of Microsoft buys you a 10 pound Butterball turkey.

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ECRI Leading Indicators Fall to Lowest Level Ever

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 | 02:30 PM

in Economy

One of the questions I seem to be getting all the time is “When is this recession going to end?”

To answer that, I turned to Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI). Their leading vs coincident chart provides insight into that question.

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$7.8 Trillion Total Bailout Commitment

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 | 09:00 AM

in Bailouts

Want to see how -- and how much -- of your money is being spent?

The Return of Tall Paul

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 | 07:45 AM

in Economy

I find this to be very encouraging:

President-elect Barack Obama will appoint former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping to lift the nation from recession and stabilize financial markets, Democratic officials say.

The panel will be called the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

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Case-Shiller Index falls 17.4%

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | 01:30 PM

in Real Estate

The September S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 US cities fell 17.4% year over year -- that is the most on record and is now down 21.7% from its high in July '06. On a month over month and year over year basis, all 20 cities saw declines.

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Big Bailouts, Bigger Bucks

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | 10:14 AM

in Bailouts

I found that whenever I discussed the current bailout situation, people had a hard time comprehending the actual numbers involved. In doing the research for the Bailout Nation book, that was a problem. I needed a way to put this into proper historical perspective.

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

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Pithy Quotes for 2008 Bailouts?

Monday, November 24, 2008 | 09:15 PM

in Bailouts

So the never ending book is coming along. Thanks to Paulson, Bernanke, et. al., it just keeps getting longer.

One of the things I decided to do was throw a relevant quote, by a famous or infamous personage, into the beginning of each chapter. The idea was to set the tone for each chapter with some time tested wisdom or clever turn of phrase.

For example

"If they are too big to fail, make them smaller."
-former Nixon Treasury Secretary George Shultz, said about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I have not come up with any quotes for the rest of the class of 2008 bailouts.

Any suggestions? The best quote gets an autographed copy of Bailout Nation, and my undying gratitude.

2008 Bailouts
1.Bear Stearns
2. ~~Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac~~
3. AIG
4. Detroit / GM loans
(research loan already made, plus the new bailout request)
5. Home Owners Assistance
6. TARP
7. Lehman Brothers (the non bailout)
8. Citigroup ($25 + 20 + 306 billion)
9. Whoever is next
10. Whoever I forgot

Anyone have any great ideas?

Christmas Spending Projection Drops to 8 Year Low

Monday, November 24, 2008 | 02:35 PM

in Consumer Spending

Gallup reports that:

"Americans' projected average Christmas spending this year, $616, is the lowest in Gallup's 10-year history of tracking this question in its current format, and provides further evidence of the heavy toll the current economic turmoil is taking on America's retailers."

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Existing Home Sales Record Price Drop

Monday, November 24, 2008 | 11:40 AM

in Real Estate

Sales of existing homes dropped 3.1% from the prior month in October, and slipped 1.6% from the previous year. Total housing inventory fell 0.9%. percent to 4.23 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 10.2-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 10.0-month supply in September. Single-family home sales declined 3.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.43 million

Prices fell by the most on record: Median price fell 11.3% ($183,300) from a year earlier. This is the largest year-over-year existing home price decrease since records began in 1968.

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