tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:17:26 +0000http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/rw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)Blogger1335125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-3850103145005553941Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:51:00 +00002008-11-20T09:17:26.785-05:00The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose by 27,000 last week to their highest level in 16 years, according to the Labor Department. Much of the job losses are comng from the fnancial sector, the high tech sector and, of course, Detroit's Big Three auto firms. Here is A list of recently announced job cuts, as compiled by CNBC: Boeing announced plans on November 19http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/jobless-claims-hit-16-year-high.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-3006019863378450446Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:32:00 +00002008-11-20T08:41:40.142-05:00PrnceAlwaleedBinTalalRobertRubinCitiPrince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding said Alwaleed will increase his Citigroup stake, his largest holding, to 5 percent. His holdings in Citi are currently less than 4%. In his mysterious role at Citi as "Director and Senior Counselor", since joining the bank n 1999, Rubin has pulled down $150 million in salary and bonuses. http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/bet-on-robert-rubin-wing-of-goldman.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-6601011702934067632Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:07:00 +00002008-11-20T08:11:23.784-05:00JunkBondsFear continues strong throughout the economy. Average yields on US junk bonds have topped 20 per cent for the first time. The yield on the benchmark Merrill Lynch US High-Yield index hit 20.81 on Wednesday after climbing to 20.27 per cent on Tuesday. Before Tuesday, the previous high for the index was 18.66 per cent in January 1991. The risk premium, or spread over comparable Treasury securitieshttp://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/junk-bond-yields-spike.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-4309345809435133574Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:12:00 +00002008-11-19T14:48:47.079-05:00recessionFederalReserveYou have to take this news out of the Fed with a ton of salt, since they didn't see the recession or the housing crisis coming, despite the fact that they caused it by their money supply manipulations. That said, according to minutes of the closed-door meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on Oct. 28 and 29. The Fed governors and Fed bank presidents "generally expected the economy to http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/fed-sees-recession-lasting-through.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-4590930430998642101Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:44:00 +00002008-11-19T13:50:40.422-05:00LewRockwellRepublicansLew Rockwell sees four years of gridlock, with Republican leaders returning to their free market, limited government roots. Let's hope that is the case and not just wishful thinking on Lew's part because of the current lame duck Congress dragging its feet on a bailout of the auto industry. Without gridlock, it is a continued march towards totalitarianism.http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/four-years-of-gridlock.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-5425351201041873976Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:54:00 +00002008-11-19T13:54:19.197-05:00marAutoIndustry If you don't have the albatross of above market union wages and legacy payments, you can do pretty well in the auto industry. Mark Perry writes: On Monday, Honda celebrated the opening of its $550-million, nonunion plant in Greensburg, Indiana, capable of producing 200,000 vehicles annually, highlighting the contrast between the healthy Asian automaker and its ailing domestic rivals. And evenhttp://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/booming-auto-industry-for-real-or.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-5813122352330962293Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:27:00 +00002008-11-19T11:53:20.705-05:00BarackObamaRahmEmanuelMicro-managing with no clue about basic economic principles appears to be the driving force behind Barack Obama's first 100 days. With the ascent of unions and the Greenie-Industrial Complex as icing on the cake. At The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Conference, Obama's incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told the audience, according to WSJ, that "a major economic stimulus would be 'the http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/here-comes-greenie-industrial.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-5749953889140047174Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:22:00 +00002008-11-19T09:39:27.415-05:00StephanieChenBarackObamaLike I said, prisons will be a major growth industry in America. Stephanie Chen at WSJ is reporting: Prison companies are preparing for a wave of new business as the economic downturn makes it increasingly difficult for federal and state government officials to build and operate their own jails. The Federal Bureau of Prisons and several state governments have sent thousands of inmates in http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/larger-inmate-population-is-boon-to.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-2025685737417801322Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:06:00 +00002008-11-19T09:19:41.203-05:00ConsumerPriceIndexThe Consumer Price Index decreased 1.0 percent in October, before seasonal adjustment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The October level of 216.57(1982-84=100) was 3.7 percent higher than in October 2007. The October drop from the previous month of 1.0 percent, was the biggest one month drop in 61 years and reflects the slowdown in money growth over the summer and the accompanyng http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/cpi-climbing-at-37-annual-rate.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-8601979227761404099Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:01:00 +00002008-11-19T09:02:39.586-05:00CitiCitigroup is liquidating its Corporate Special Opportunities hedge fund after it lost 53 per cent of its value last month. This is the ninth time in recent months that the bank has had to close or rescue a fund in its alternative investment unit.http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/citigroup-liquidates-fund-that-fell-53.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-8378475831798264498Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:49:00 +00002008-11-19T08:58:44.722-05:00KenichiWatanabeNomuraHe is doing a lot of hedging but Kenichi Watanabe, chief executive of Japan's Nomura said, “From a very optimistic point of view, the financial liquidity crisis has subsided, for the time being, and the focus has shifted to the real economy.” Given that the world's central banks are printing money to "unfreeze" the markets, the likelihood is that Watanabe is correct and the liquidity crisis is http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/nomura-chief-says-liquidity-crisis-over.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-4405494879355932267Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:00:00 +00002008-11-19T00:19:10.377-05:00RaceThomasSowellWalterBlockWalter Block has created a major brouhaha at Loyloa College in Maryland as a result of his speech there and comments he made during the Q & A. See his report on the controversy here. Part of the controversy surrounds Block's comments on the productivity of blacks. I'll let Block take it from here: ...one young man asked about the pay gap between blacks and whites, which I had said in my lecturehttp://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/walter-block-on-black-productvity.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-7736523027487779008Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:19:00 +00002008-11-18T09:27:59.726-05:00InflationMonetaryPolicy....like the Fed did this summer and you kill inflation. Wholesale prices plunged a record amount in October. The Labor Department reported today that wholesale prices dropped by 2.8 percent in October, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back more than 60 years. The 2.8 percent overall decrease marked the third straight month that wholesale prices have fallen. Money supply http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/stop-printing-money.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-7791989714503630469Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:14:00 +00002008-11-18T09:16:16.902-05:00BenBernankeHenryPaulsonFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are scheduled to testify today before the House Financial Services Committee.http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/alert-paulson-bernanke-testimony.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-3612181235223462002Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:00:00 +00002008-11-18T09:12:13.555-05:00JohnPodestaGeorgeSorosBloomberg explains: Thanks in part to funding from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros, the Center for American Progress has become in just five years an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals, including many that are shaping the agenda of the new Obama administration... CAP's president and founder, John Podesta, 59, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, is http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/soros-obama-connection.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-2191421035839343626Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:46:00 +00002008-11-18T08:52:51.478-05:00MortgageCrisisJohnPaulsonJohn Paulson, the hedge fund manager (not to be confused with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson), who was called before Congress last week to discuss the huge profits ($3.7 billion) he made by foreseeing the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and shortng mortgage backed securities, has started to buy securities backed by residential mortgages. US residential mortgage securities fell in http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/paulson-hedge-fund-buys-into-mortgage.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-3064591861672181604Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:10:00 +00002008-11-18T02:00:08.564-05:00IraqMarkCubanGeorgeWBushJeffreyNorrisWow, when I made the post below, I did not expect the Mark Cuban story to develop this quickly, bizarrely and intensely. A person close to Mark Cuban, has told DealBook that an SEC employee had sent Cuban e-mails several times over the last year or so, accusing him of being unpatriotic. Cuban was today charged by the SEC with insider trading. The emails from the SEC employee raised concerns http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/cubans-insider-trading-charge-payback.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-1437900480439727052Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:06:00 +00002008-11-18T09:57:11.082-05:00SecuritiesAnd ExchangeCommissionRalphFerraraMarkCubanChristopherCoxMarthaStewartChristopherlClarkDoes SEC Chairman Chris Cox have another public relations nightmare on his hands? The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, has been charged with insider trading by the SEC. Note to SEC, Mark Cuban is not Martha Stewart. The SEC may have thought they had another lay up on their hands, instead they appear to be going up against someone that is not afraid to rip at the core of http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/sec-bites-big-dog.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-4044316891606859527Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:39:00 +00002008-11-17T23:45:03.176-05:00GeneralMotorsIlanaMercer...bad economists and politcal pimps. I second that and extend that to say, all micro-managing of an economy is about bad economists and political pimps. http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/llana-mercer-says-gm-bailout-is-about.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-4565377195848717151Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:20:00 +00002008-11-17T09:33:02.943-05:00RobertSteelHenryPaulsonObviously, the political winds have shifted, Senator Chuck Grassely is calling for an investigation of ex-Goldman execs at Treasury. FT reports: A senior Republican senator is seeking an investigation into potential conflicts of interest among former Goldman Sachs executives serving at the US Treasury and whether any officials exceeded their authority by implementing a controversial tax change http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/grasselys-probe-of-ex-goldman-execs-at.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-8699817680680947078Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:10:00 +00002008-11-17T09:19:22.166-05:00EuropeanUnionrecessionJeffrey FrankelUnitedStatesJapanFrom The Independent: It's official: eurozone collapses into its first recession: Europe's economy officially collapsed into recession for the first time since its inception during the third quarter ... The eurozone, made up of the 15 countries that use the euro as their primary currency, shrank by 0.2 percentage points between July and the end of September, having contracted by the same margin http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/europe-and-japan-officially-in.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-1277754382738815627Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:39:00 +00002008-11-17T09:01:22.786-05:00JimInhofeHenryPaulsonU.S. Senator. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) lets go on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. He told the Tulsa World: It is just outrageous that the American people don't know that Congress doesn't know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone. It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don't know. There is no way of knowing. He was able to get this http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/inhofe-forget-credit-squeeze-freeze.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-2901530589658399263Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:25:00 +00002008-11-17T01:28:59.163-05:00BarackObamaGreenieIndustrialComplex...and wants "a new spirit of sacrifice" from all of us. http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/obama-wants-to-put-150-billion-into.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-9211524788549486461Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:12:00 +00002008-11-17T00:18:53.482-05:00PaulKrugmanBarackObamaLarrySummers"[Larry]Summers is one of a few who are at Krugman's level of intellect." -Posted at Economists for Obama, in support of Summers being chosen by Obama as Treasury Secretary.http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/is-this-endorsement.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-1105515561076596891Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:07:00 +00002008-11-17T00:07:00.430-05:00EmploymentServiceSteve JobsEmploymentHelpWantedIs it time to make a job move? I am pleased to announce that EconomicPolicyJournal.com has entered into an agreement with realmatch, whereby Real-Time Job Matching ™, a technology that allows employers and job seekers to specifically define themselves, their needs and their preferences, will be featured at EPJ. This is a state of the art help wanted career service and much more. Instead of a http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/11/economicpolicyjournalcom-and-realmatch.htmlrw@economicpolicyjournal.com (Robert Wenzel)