November 2008

Sunday Morning Comics - Election Edition

Sponsored by corporate lobbyists - so many candidates, so many ways to buy them

Cup O' Joe

Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...time to check out the Funnies!

Today's theme are the best of the election campaign videos that are brazenly sexistracistrudebiasedlieshostile
antagonisticmisogynisticusingbigtitgonadstogetsomevotesstupid
notfunnydumbbogusspinpunditryinaboxwasteofbits
funny.

Plunging Currencies in Eastern Europe

Earlier this week I wrote a detailed post, a Possible Currency crisis happening, particularly in Eastern Europe.

Bloomberg is now reporting Plunging Currencies in Eastern Europe.

This is after the IMF stepped in.

Since the end of August, the forint has fallen 16 percent against the Swiss franc, the currency of choice for Hungarian homebuyers, and more than 8 percent versus the euro. Foreign- currency loans make up 62 percent of all household debt in the country, up from 33 percent three years ago.

Are we at the bottom of the recession now?

Back in August 2007 when I was first formulating my idea of a "Slow Motion Bust" that would recreate the Panics of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but in multi-year s l o w m o t i o n, I wrote on the Big Orange Political Blog that business cycle research seemed to be making a resurgeance. In that blog post, I discussed the compelling data set forth by UCLA economist Edward Leamer in a paper presented at Jackson Hole earlier in August 2007 (warning: pdf).

To summarize that blog entry, according to Prof. Leamer, the 10 recessions that have occurred since World War II have followed a typical pattern. Housing declines first, well before the recession; then durable goods especially cars (which fall most precipitously during the recession); then consumer nondurables (generally retail sales); and finally at the end, consumer services:

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