- Like clunkers, caulkers only drags demand forward, Mish says. “By the way, not the incentive that consumers and businesses have to not do anything until government hands out more free money to act.”
- Rising housing starts represents a mixed bag for the economy.
- Former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson says don’t worry about Greece’s budget deficit.
- Skepticism still running rampant amid this rally.
- Move to reinstate Glass-Steagall picking up steam.
- Why isn’t there an urgency to fix Fannie/Freddie’s problems? “There seems to be plenty of time for topics like creating jobs…and yet not for figuring out how to deal with the $111 billion albatross hanging around taxpayers’ necks,” Barbara Kiviat says.
- Market breadth is rising, but a pullback may not be imminent.
- Citi to payback TARP. So what’s up with its declining stock price?
- Suspicions of a gold bubble are mounting, says Dr. Doom Nouriel Roubini.
- Time magazine names Ben Bernanke Person of the Year, but will the cover curse haunt him?
- Speaking of Bernanke, Tim Ianco says he’s immersed in the “Bizarro World.”
- Cutting wages won’t help spur recovery. “In a severe recession, a cut in the wage rate may not generate any new employment, instead it simply lowers income and demand, and that makes things even worse,” University of Oregon economics professor Mark Thoma says.
