…Calmly observing the changing world

Last night we made our second attempt at signing loan documents – we barely made it as we finished up at 11:58PM. The long, grueling battle was triggered when we embarked on a course called an “e-signing”. Instead of physically signing documents, we could just click a button with a notary present. As with most [...]

At the Riksbank, which now has a deposit rate of minus 0.25 per cent, the most vocal advocate of the policy is deputy governor Lars Svensson, a world-renowned expert on monetary policy theory and a close associate of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, since they worked together at Princeton University. CNN (Financial [...]

I suppose it is a sign of the times that the FDIC’s Failed Bank List was updated with some new features. When I heard that the FDIC closed an astounding seven banks just on Friday, I had to take a closer look, and happily found that the list is now sortable, and has grown so [...]

If you listen closely, you will hear “The New Normal” as the catchphrase of those economists who understand that the “old normal” can never return. This appears at first to be a useful insight, until you realize that by the new normal, these economists mean a quantitatively different normal. That is, it will be a lot [...]

This evening, I attempted to watch Obama’s address to Congress, which (on my Tivo) CBS had inappropriately labeled “State of the Union”. After nearly fainting at the dreadful commentary by the CBS reporters (I don’t watch much news), I quickly fast-forwarded to the President’s speech. As I watched Obama, I could perceive none of the [...]

By now, everyone has figured out just how bad things are – or have they? Since we can’t know how bad things will get, it’s difficult to judge how bad things are right now, and at what point along the road we are, and where the road leads. Obama seems to have it all figured [...]

If troubles in Iceland reveal our civilization fraying a bit around the edges, the Greek uprisings do the same with a slightly more ominous overtone. While the Icelanders have kept their cool even while protesting their government, the Greeks are given to a little more passion. Today, Athens is no longer a pillar of our [...]

Often, people will flippantly claim that the federal government will just print up some money when they need it. No one really seems to know exactly how this works, but everyone is pretty sure that it is true. More importantly, everyone seems to reluctantly accept that this is somehow legal, and marginally acceptable. But what [...]

If you were going to guess which country would be the first to succumb to the financial collapse, you probably wouldn’t have come up with Iceland, even though the island nation has been battling a currency crisis since the Spring. After all, Iceland has no real national debt to speak of, and significant low cost [...]

As autumn gloom casts a pall over the nation, and frightened investors cling ever more tightly to their pumpkin spice lattes, life apparently continues on its steady course without regard to the looming clouds which threaten financial chaos. Main Street, though, has finally witnessed for itself a token sign of the credit crisis which began [...]