Green Shoots & Leaves
Bloomberg - General Motors Co.’s chief of the Buick and GMC brands left eight days after joining the biggest U.S. automaker, giving Chairman Ed Whitacre another chance to deepen his imprint on senior management (like rats jumping off a sinking ship).
Bloomberg - Fewer Americans on average filed claims for jobless benefits during the past four weeks, signaling companies are gaining confidence as the economy recovers (or, perhaps some companies are hiring for some event that is coming up, 0h, let’s say December 25?)
Yahoo - Mounting governmental and household debt are posing new risks to the stability of financial systems, the Bank of Canada said Thursday in its most recent analysis. But it add that record-high debt by Canadian households pose an elevated medium-term risk if a second financial or economic shock were to materialize.
Bloomberg - Household wealth in the U.S. increased by $2.67 trillion in the third quarter as stock prices and home values climbed, putting consumers farther along the path of recovery from the biggest destruction of assets on record (rrrrright, keep shoveling the bs, state-run media).
Bloomberg - Americans want their government to create jobs through spending on public works, investments in alternative energy or skills training for the jobless. They also want the deficit to come down. And most are ready to hand the bill to the wealthy. A Bloomberg National Poll conducted Dec. 3-7 shows two- thirds of Americans favor taxing the rich to reduce the deficit (and this is why Obama will be voted in again in 2012 and the dems will run/ruin America for the next 20 years).
Financial Times - Rice prices have moved to levels not seen since last year’s “super-spike” as a buying spree by the Philippines, the world’s largest importer, tightens the market. Manila received offers on Tuesday for it to buy low-quality rice at about $630 a tonne, up 30 per cent from last month’s tender, and double the $320 a tonne seen earlier this year.
Yahoo - As Dubai’s recent debt crisis shows, more sovereign debt defaults will be likely over the next several years, he says.
The International Monetary Fund will try to prevent any global economic crisis in the near term says Rogoff, a former IMF chief economist. But, longer-term, difficult decisions remain about how to tackle mounting debt among G8 nations. “We can barely have the political will to raise taxes to pay our own debts,” which means less money to pay for bailouts of other creditors, he predicts.
“In a couple of years as U.S. debt explodes, as German debt explodes, and they’re all going to be pushing difficult levels, they’re really going to start thinking. ‘Hmm. Do we really want to cast this safety net?’ We’ve got to scale back,” says Rogoff.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Seriously, the more that I actually pay attention to the economic meltdown that has JUST STARTED, the more nervous that I get.
December 10th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Same here, Paul. It doesn’t help that the state-controlled media is lying to us when they say we are well on our way to recovery. We’re not, 2010 is going to be very, very ugly.
December 10th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
What are you guys talking about?! Life is all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns! The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, AP, Rueters, ABC, NBC, CBS, Chicago Times, Orlando Sentinel, Dallas Morning News, Sacramento Bee, NPR, Headline News, San Francisco Chronicle, and Bakersfield Californian have all told me so.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
And even though all the state-controled media outlets didn’t see the depression coming, I’m totally willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and let them have a do-over.
Roses and sunshine…
December 11th, 2009 at 1:01 am
The same thing is happening here in the construction industry,and I just can’t get people to listen to credible people on the recession.
There’s a modest building boom going on locally and every contractor’s busy as hell working and bidding, but every single project is a government project, low cost housing, police stations, hospital expansion, college classrooms and dorms,to the tune of hundreds of millions.
But not a cent of private development money. Personally, I’m saving everything I can as indications are this is a long way from over,especially if Obama brings in another “stimulus” bailout. If that happens, the Yankee buck is going to stake a nosedive,invest in the Yuan.
My Mother said that all during the Great Depression the newspapers headlined “Recovery Just Around the Corner” and that was in 1930.
Those that say,”keep your powder dry” may be smarter than we think.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I do enjoy your “green shoots” roundups BTW. Well… perhaps “enjoy” is the wrong word, since this stuff keeps me up at night.
“state-run media”
I hear Rush using that all the time too. Doesn’t really fit though. Were they state run when Bush was President and the Republicans held both houses of Congress?
I prefer “MSM/DNC Cabal”. It’s not state run, it’s run by the Democrats wether they are in power or not. It’s also supposed to be secret, so cabal fits nicely.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Woody - I know what you mean. I check the financials every day, and I like posting Green shoots, but the news is harrowing and freaks me right out.
Maybe I should start listening to the cabal and just start believing everything is in tip-top shape.
Dmorris - keep yer powder dry. Great advice. When the stimulus ends and the bill comes in, we are going to be in great trouble.
Put it this way - it took our Canadian gov’t about 10 years to knock down $25 billion in debt. How long is it going to take them to knock down the $58 billion Harper stimulus debt, especially when receipts are at an all-time low?
80 years?