Category: Markets

US Mortgage Delinquencies Rose and Spread in Q1


Any way you look at it, extraordinary numbers of people are having trouble paying their mortgage.

What started as a subprime crisis, where borrowers defaulted because they could not handle the payments as their loans reset, has now become a crisis among prime borrowers, who lose the ability to pay their loans when they lose their jobs …

What is less clear is the extent to which the problem is getting worse, better or is simply holding its own.

Five Guideposts For Understanding As American Financial “Reform” Proceeds


25 May 2010. By David Caploe PhD, Chief Political Economist, EconomyWatch.com.

The US now starts the process of legislatively finalizing the finance “reform” bill.

As this painfully slow and agonizing march proceeds, here are five “guideposts” to make the whole thing easier to understand – even if you don’t “believe” some of the things that are happening.

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Categorized as Markets

Oil Spill Debacle Encapsulates Obama’s Structural Flaws – EN ESPANOL !!!


Well, this analysis of Barak Obama’s snail-like response to what may well turn out to be America’s biggest environmental catastrophe,

Thailand Leaders Seek To Limit Economic Damage of Political Unrest


On Friday, Thailand’s finance minister stood before a meeting of business leaders in Japan, the source of about a third of his country’s foreign investment, and delivered a sober assessment of the convulsions that had racked his beautiful nation.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a ‘Welcome back to the Land of Smiles, let’s go shopping and invest in Thailand’ speech,” said the minister, Korn Chatikavanij.

Deflation Fears Rise in US with Lowest Inflation Since 60s


Consumer prices fell in April for the first time since early last year, and inflation rose at its slowest rate since the 1960s, a new government report said …

The report suggested that government stimulus efforts had not spurred the undesired effect of inflation.

China Inflation Grew in April, But Strong Growth Continues


China’s inflation accelerated in April, triggering fears of overheating and a possible credit clampdown by Beijing that might slow the country’s economic recovery.

April consumer prices rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier, below Beijing’s full-year target of 3 percent but up 0.4 percentage points from March, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

At Cannes Film Fest, Global Economic Crisis Visible On- and Off-Screen


The global economic crisis has already shaped up as one of the defining stories at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Its effects are evident both in empty theater seats and on-screen with a movie like “Inside Job,” a documentary about the crisis from Charles Ferguson, a dot-com entrepreneur turned moviemaker.

India IPL, BCCI & Lalit Modi: Cricket’s Huge Popularity Brings Huge Problems


Founded three seasons ago, the Indian Premier League managed to make the sport of cricket sexy.

India’s corporate titans bought teams, Bollywood stars infused matches with celebrity glamour and fans from Mumbai to Dubai to New Jersey followed the league on television as its value rose to more than $4 billion.

Eastern Europeans Outside Euro-zone Still Hungry for Loans


When the currencies of countries like Hungary and Romania plunged last year, thousands of businesses and homeowners there found themselves stuck with some of the most extreme variable-interest-rate loans on the planet.

When the currencies of countries like Hungary and Romania plunged last year, thousands of businesses and homeowners there found themselves stuck with some of the most extreme variable-interest-rate loans on the planet.

Euro Debt Crisis Now Directly Affecting Chinese Exports


The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading as the plummeting euro makes Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicates any move to break the Chinese currency’s peg to the dollar.

The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading as the plummeting euro makes Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicates any move to break the Chinese currency’s peg to the dollar.