This last spring, I posted on how I thought that there were basically two recessions going on. That is that there were two sectors that made up a disproportionate share of the employment losses. From that post:
Several weeks ago there were these serious allegations from a former Moody's executive, Eric Kolchinsky:
Kolchinsky said Moody's "gave a high rating to a complicated debt security in January 2009 knowing that it was planning to downgrade assets that backed the securities. Within months, the securities were put on review for a downgrade.
"Moody's issued an opinion which was known to be wrong," Mr. Kolchinsky wrote in a July letter to the rating firm's chief compliance officer, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In the letter, Mr. Kolchinsky cited other instances in which he believes inflated ratings were given to securities.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
First is quite a bombshell from Bill Moyer's Journal on the financial bail outs. Congress Representative Marcy Kaptur and Economist Bill Simon brazenly say Wall Street is in charge of the government. This is a must watch.
Quick question: What is bigger than the economy of India, and almost as big as the economy of Canada? It's larger than the national debt of America during its first 200 years in existence, and is equal to $4,700 for every man, woman, and child in America.
If you guessed the federal deficit for fiscal year 2009, you would be correct.
It's the federal budget deficit for 2009, more than three times the most red ink ever amassed in a single year.
Treasury figures released Friday showed that the government spent $46.6 billion more in September than it took in, a month that normally records a surplus. That boosted the shortfall for the full fiscal year ending Sept. 30 to $1.42 trillion. The previous year's deficit was $459 billion.
(CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices have vaulted above $78 a barrel this week as investors continue to fret about a weak dollar and the pace of the economic recovery.
When the news media has mentioned oil they've tried to paint it as a good thing - expected demand from a booming economy. Of course the general economy is not booming, or doing much of anything for that matter.
On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the middle column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.
Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization numbers are out for September 2009. Industrial production increased 0.7%, which is down from a 1.2% increase in August.
On Q3 2009, things are looking better:
For the third quarter as a whole, output advanced at an annual rate of 5.2 percent, the first quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2008 and the largest gain since the first quarter of 2005.
Total industrial production is still down 6.1% from it's September 2008 level.
Capacity utilization is now 70.5%, up 0.6% from last month but still down 4% from September last year.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a massive corporate lobbyist group and characterized by Elliot Spitzer as a Chamber of Horrors. I couldn't agree more. Bad policies, bad legislation putting the entire nation, economy at risk is the history of this lobbying group.
Spitzer outlines a game plan to rid ourselves of this vile organization. Spitzer suggests public pension funds put pressure on companies to stop their membership to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for once starving the lobbyist beast by cutting off membership fees. Spitzer argues that these publicly traded companies which public pension funds often invest in, are paying the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to block legislation which is against these very state pension funds interests.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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