Archive for January, 2010

• Printing GDP: Gregor Weekly Macro Note
  Gregor Macdonald, January 30th, 2010 at 10:26 pm, Comments: 0

  Friday’s GDP report was a headline stunner. It gave cover to the more bullish and conventional street analysts. And, it helped President Obama win the weekly newscycle. I found the attempts to downplay the result, typical among perma-bears, to be tiresome although in truth their analysis is accurate. In general, macro bears of which I [...]

• Podcast Picks: Friday 29 January 2009
  Gregor Macdonald, January 29th, 2010 at 5:15 pm, Comments: 0

  Rethinking Energy Security: roundtable with IEA’s Fatih Birol, Davos Podcasts.
  Anglo-American financial situation: Bill Sharon and Mike Hampton, Frisby’s Bulls and Bears Radio.
  24 Hours in Tulsa: Officer Jay Chiarito-Mazarrella’s cult following for his Street Story podcasts, BBC World Service Documentaries.
  Big Slide (Act 1): James Kunstler’s latest – a Three Act Play on post crisis America, Kunstler [...]

• MBS Catch-22: Model Portfolio Update
  Gregor Macdonald, January 27th, 2010 at 11:13 pm, Comments: 0

  The FED confirmed its intention today to end its MBS purchase program, which saw the uptake of 1.25 trillion in mortgages over the past 9 months, since March of last year. I remain doubtful that the FED will be able to halt this program for long. After all, this operation served a double purpose. Not [...]

• Readings: Tuesday 26 January 2009
  Gregor Macdonald, January 26th, 2010 at 7:03 pm, Comments: 0

  L.A. County transit agency projects historic budget shortfall: Ari Bloomekatz, The Los Angeles Times.
  The Economic Case Against Ben Bernanke: Steve Keen, Steve Keen’s Debtwatch.
  Superfast Bullet Trains Are Finally Coming to the U.S.: James Glave and Rachel Swaby, WIRED.
  UK: using woodlands to cut emissions: Chris Goodall, scitizen.com.
  One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – [...]

• First Responders: Gregor Weekly Macro Note
  Gregor Macdonald, January 23rd, 2010 at 11:47 pm, Comments: 0

  The largest nationalisation in the history of the United States occurred in the first week of September 2008, when the US took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. At the time, I don’t recall President Bush, Treasury Secretary Paulson, or FED Chairman Bernanke referred to as socialists. Since President Obama took office his administration has [...]

• Podcast Picks: Friday 22 January 2009
  Gregor Macdonald, January 22nd, 2010 at 5:15 pm, Comments: 0

  Life After Layoffs: roundtable on self-reinvention after job loss, WBUR OnPoint Radio.
  Massachusetts Revolt and Obama’s Agenda: roundtable on Tuesday’s Senate result, WBUR On Point Radio.
  Long Shot: stories of people betting on something with very bad odds, mostly because they have no other choice, This American Life Radio.

  America in Decline: interview with Flynn and Fallows, WAMU [...]

• Here Come the Deficit Hawks? Model Portfolio Update
  Gregor Macdonald, January 20th, 2010 at 10:01 pm, Comments: 0

  The market sees the coming of the Deficit Hawks, in the wake of last night’s Massachusetts Senate election. And that’s understandable. While Congress can’t as yet control monetization by the FED, a determined opposition could indeed start to slow down the serial increases in the debt limit ceiling. Initially, that’s dollar supportive or at least [...]

• Loss of Purchasing Power: Gregor Weekly Macro Note
  Gregor Macdonald, January 16th, 2010 at 11:25 pm, Comments: 0

  I don’t believe the loss of purchasing power can be properly cited as an example of deflation. But I’m open minded. And I look forward with some amusement to see if the deflationist blogosphere can come up with such an argument. Until then my view of Friday’s wage data was echoed nicely today in the [...]

• Podcast Picks: Friday 15 January 2009
  Gregor Macdonald, January 15th, 2010 at 1:23 pm, Comments: 0

  India’s food prices jump by 20%: Robert Young reports, BBC World Service Radio.
  The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Dongping Han – via the Rediscovering China’s Cultural Revolution symposium at UC Berkeley, KPFA Guns and Butter Radio Show.

  Wall Street Revalued: interview with Andrew Smithers, Financial Sense Newshour.
  California’s Budget Crisis – Harbinger for the rest of the nation?: Roundtable [...]

• Cross-Posted: Peak Non-OPEC in 2010, Officially Speaking?
  Gregor Macdonald, January 14th, 2010 at 11:57 pm, Comments: 0

  Today from Gregor.us:
  While the actual claims of the whistleblowers have never been adjudicated (and likely never will be), the more relevant takeaway from the incident is that IEA rather importantly suggested that Non-OPEC production would peak in 2010. As I wrote back in November, we needed no whistleblower to deduce the absurdity of an energy [...]