Because of the Republicans new found concern for budget deficits, 1.2 million American families will be cut adrift today.
Nearly 1.2 million unemployed Americans - including 27,000 in Wisconsin - face an imminent cutoff of government unemployment checks if Congress cannot pass emergency legislation to extend federal benefits before funding expires Sunday.
The immediate cause of the shortage is that millions of migrant workers who traveled home for the long lunar New Year earlier this month are not returning to the coast. Thanks to a half-trillion-dollar government stimulus program, jobs are being created in the interior.
But many economists say the recent global downturn also obscured a longer-term trend: China has drained its once vast reserves of unemployed workers in rural areas and is running out of fresh laborers for its factories.
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.
All the attention of the financial world has been focused on Greece. This is captured in one alarming statement made by the head of the German debt management agency.
"I think if one of the 16 members would default, it would be a collapse of the whole system," German Finance Agency managing director Carl Heinz Daube told a bond conference in London.
"If a country goes bankrupt, it will be the end (of the euro zone)," he told a panel discussion at a bond conference in London.
You would think that Greece is suffering from an epic economic collapse. In fact their economy has shrunk less than 3%.
Hey everybody, let's have Build America bonds to help everybody get a job! Right? Oops, guess who makes big bucks for underwriting fees? Wall Street, especially Goldman Sachs.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, today asked Goldman Sachs whether it would collect double-digit underwriting fees for participating in a newly expanded Build America Bonds program, as included in the “jobs” bill promoted by the Senate Democratic leaders and passed by the Senate today.
Here is Senator letter to Goldman Sachs, in which he notes Goldman Sachs put out a full page ad promoting these bonds.
February 24, 2010
Mr. Lloyd C. Blankfein
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
85 Broad Street
New York, NY 10004
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!
Below is a talk on the actual mathematical models behind credit default swaps, credit default obligations and a very "Pro" Quant MIT Professor, Dr. Andrew Lo describing the mess. Here are some slides from a talk on the same topic. Now I do blame the mathematical models themselves, sorry we've looked at the mathematics, but this guy is a Financial Engineering Professor, so listening to his views and insights one must, as well as not discredit human nature as he points out. Lo has also testified before Congress on systemic risk. Here is the actual testimony with select quotes extracted and Baseline Scenario pulling out some quotes as well.
Are Mathematical Models the Cause of the Financial Crisis in the Global Economy?
All those who thought that AIG was out of the woods following its massive Federal Reserve bailout, may be in for a surprise.
(Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc. posted a wider-than-expected loss after setting aside more reserves for insurance claims and paying down bailout debts. The shares fell 8.5 percent in New York trading.
The fourth-quarter net loss of $8.87 billion, or $65.51 a share, narrowed from $61.7 billion, or $458.99, a year earlier when AIG recorded the biggest loss in U.S. corporate history, the New York-based firm said today. Results included $6.7 billion in charges fueled by paying down AIG’s Federal Reserve credit line. It cost AIG $1.8 billion to add to property- casualty reserves as sales in the division slipped 2.2 percent.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – dropped 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.05 million units in January from a revised 5.44 million in December, but remain 11.5 percent above the 4.53 million-unit level in January 2009.
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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