- “Another Lehman/AIG-type situation lurks somewhere on the European continent, and again our purported G7 (or even G20) leaders are slow to see the risk,” former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson says. “And this time, given that they already used almost all their fiscal bullets, it will be considerably more difficult for governments to respond effectively when they do wake up.”
- Between last week’s jobs report, auto sales data and declining oil and copper prices, deflationary pressures still weigh on the economy, James Hamilton writes at Econbrowser.
- AOL takes another step toward selling its ICQ instant messaging service, Kara Swisher reports.
- No one’s really talking about it, but renewed pickup in credit losses looms as concern, John Hussman cautions. “Credit spreads widened again last week, and we’re keeping a keen eye on those, as well as indications of delinquencies and foreclosures, which may become a renewed source of concern.”
- Lagging labor markets are “inconvenient, but common,” Jeff Frankel says. GDP went from negative in 1H09, to positive in 3Q and strongly positive in 4Q, suggesting the end of the recession may’ve occurred in the middle of last year.
- Advertisers are increasingly underwhelmed by TV advertising. So are viewers – Betty White aside, last night’s Super Bowl ads were a bunch of duds.
- IPad hasn’t even been released yet, but Apple’s (AAPL) supposedly considering price cuts if the device doesn’t perform as well as expected, John Paczkowski reports.
- Lloyd Blankfein’s $9M bonus is “a great move” by Goldman Sachs (GS), not only from PR perspective, but also from internal point of view, Reuters blogger Felix Salmon says.
- Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain returns to head embattled CIT Group, uniting two prominent causalities of the credit crisis.
- Man, what we would do to be on Bourbon Street right now.
