Market song o’ day: Slow Dancing In A Burning Room.
General Motors Corp. says it will cut another 250,000 vehicles from its first-quarter production schedule by temporarily closing 21 factories across North America.
Tech Layoffs Surge Past 100,000. Free market: States are running out of money to pay unemployment benefits. Deep-sixed: As U.S. jobs disappear at a rapid clip, the official unemployment figure seems understated.
Foreclosure society: a second wave of expected mortgage defaults is on the way. 25.8: Manufacturing in New York contracted in December at the fastest pace on record as orders and shipments remained weak. Saved by zero: Fed ready to cut main rate.
No news is good news: Detroit Free Press will cease home delivery on most days of the week.
Nigiri: Japan reported its sharpest crash in business sentiment in three decades on Monday.
Jim Rogers: Most U.S. Banks “Bankrupt”. Evidence: Capital One writes off over $500M in November. Credit card delinquencies up, Fitch report says. Hmm, let me think: Are Paulson and Bernanke Lying to Us?
This is long but worth the full read: Ok, Barry Ritholtz, I am scared shitless. If you need more constipatory material: Economic Survey of the United States 2008.
Damning: 8 years by the numbers. Not pretty. Sad.
Mad-off: $50 billion lost in Ponzi scheme. Isn’t that just called a hedge fund these days? That’s some good hedging: As of November 1, 2008, assets under management at FGG totaled approximately $14.1 billion, of which approximately $7.5 billion was invested in vehicles connected to Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. All hail Phil Gramm: I think now it is very difficult for people to invest in things that are meant to be regulated in America because they haven fallen down in the job.
Deutsche Bank hit with $1 billion trading loss.
No more toasters and no more fees: Banks have increased advertising to bolster consumer confidence. Analyst fail: Jamie Dimon announces that results will suck lat week. Today, Merrill cuts JPMorgan to underperform; sees Q4 loss. Gee, thanks Merrill Lynch. How prescient.
Blogs like Ritholtz.com, RGE Monitor, and Calculated Risk are explaining the crisis in an intelligent manner. Meanwhile, we have the vaunted mainstream media with this: Top 10 Financial Collapses. And then they wonder why nobody respects Time or other weekly “news” journals and subscriptions are dwindling. The Economist predictions for 2008: Fail.
Reader comment in WaPo: A Modest Proposal.
Republicans might pick up votes if they could prove they believe what they say. This could be done by 1) forgoing their government health care plan, and 2) reducing their salaries to that of non-union auto workers (which is what they asked Detroit’s auto workers to do) and scale back on their pensions.
Up there with restless syndrome: First Confirmed Case of Online Sleepwalking.
How MLS of them: Arena Football League cancels 2009 season.
Because $60 million cannot be put to better use in one of the poorest countries in the world: A wealthy Bangladeshi filmmaker is spending about $60 million to build an exact replica of India’s Taj Mahal.
Quote o’ day. Immanuel Kant: From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
4 Comments
December 16, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Those are some very discouraging articles you have pieced together for the day. let’s hope for an up day Tuesday so we can get a listing of positive material.
December 17, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Free Acai Berry,
It’s getting tough to find positive news! It is truly depressing but I’ll hunt more. Thanks for writing.
December 18, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Stocks are like the housing market. I think stocks have more to go down and real estate is close to the bottom
December 22, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Foreclosures By State,
I agree. I believe employment #s have to stabilize before we see any sign of uptick. And that seems to some ways off.