This CNBC report from the World Economic Forum in Davos this week has some comments worth calling out from Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Barclays President Bob Diamond. Highlights from each below: BRIAN MOYNIHAN, BofA CEO “Bank of America is not too big. Big by definition is not the question, it’s a question
January 2010
The first of three 4Q09 GDP readings came in today at +5.7%, making a second consecutive quarter of positive GDP growth after four consecutive quarters of economic contraction (a 60yr record for consecutive GDP declines). The strong initial GDP reading was due largely to acceleration in private inventory investment, a deceleration in imports, and an
Rates May Hold When MBS Buying Ends At least there is no ambiguity about what the Fed is doing in their mortgage purchase program. Last week the Fed purchased a net $12 billion in agency MBS, bringing its total net purchase to $1.161 trillion. But everyone has a pretty good sense of how this movie
This was week 56 of a mortgage bond purchase program by the Federal Reserve—here’s week 55. From January 21 to January 27, the Fed bought $12b net of mortgage bonds. This is just above the weekly low for the entire program set four weeks ago with $9.3b in net buys, and clarifies a trend of
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has been confirmed by a 70-30 Senate vote to continue in a second term. He now needs to decide how and when to unwind all the stimulus created to help America through the credit crisis. Some stats on the Fed’s balance sheet below from Bloomberg. Also noteworthy is their survey of
The latest Dow Jones survey on how Senators might vote for Ben Bernanke’s reappointment to another term as Fed chairman shows 53 yes votes, 20 no votes, and 27 undecided or didn’t respond to poll. Deliberations are expected to start shortly, and vote could come today. Bernanke’s term expires January 31, and if he wasn’t
ARMs Only 3% Of Total Agency Loans In 2009 An annual report on the ARM market published by Freddie Mac shows adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for just 3 percent of all conventional home purchase loans in 2009. That’s the smallest percentage for ARMs since at least 1982. Market & Economic News Update Yes, today we have
As Obama’s speech and it’s policy contents get torn apart by politicians and pundits in the coming days, the excerpt below is by far the most moving and important because it addresses the reason why nothing gets done in Washington—and because it offers a long-term perspective rather than an election cycle perspective. Here’s to hoping
The folks at Dictionary.com aren’t always topical on their word of the day choices, and I’m not even sure that’s their goal, but they certainly nailed it today with the word panjandrum. It means an important personage or pretentious official, and today was jam packed with panjandrums. In fact, I didn’t even get a chance
The Fed held the overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate at a range of 0-0.25% and more definitively announced that they expect to wind down their mortgage bond purchases by March 31. They still said they will make a final decision on MBS buys according to market conditions, but they did say they’d wind down purchases
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is testifying before congress this morning about the AIG bailout in Fall 2008. At issue is whether AIG counterparties should have been paid in full for AIG’s obligations to them using government aid. As the testimony points out, Treasury and the Fed were mostly concerned about broad economic meltdown and had
Here’s Bloomberg’s latest count on the Senate vote on whether to re-confirm Ben Bernanke for another term. His existing term expires Sunday, January 31, so a vote is expected before then. If Bernanke wasn’t confirmed by Sunday Fed vice chairman and voting FOMC member Donald Kohn is a likely person to serve as interim chairman.
Here’s Bloomberg’s latest count on the Senate vote on whether to re-confirm Ben Bernanke for another term. His existing term expires Sunday, January 31, so a vote is expected before then. If Bernanke wasn’t confirmed by Sunday Fed vice chairman and voting FOMC member Donald Kohn is a likely person to serve as interim chairman.
Here’s a compilation reel from Politico showing pundits reacting to Obama’s proposed spending freeze. We’ll hear more about this in his address tomorrow night. In the meantime, here’s all the chatter.
Dueling economic theories have never been more entertaining. Here’s the premise of this rap battle according to this video’s producers: In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before
The S&P Case Shiller November 2009 report of existing home sales showed year-over-year -5.3% price declines averaged across 20 major metropolitan areas (see table below). Notable declines for the year-over-year period were Las Vegas -24.5%, Phoenix -14.2%, and Detroit -13%. Conversely, San Francisco has reported eight consecutive months of positive returns, San Diego has reported
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