Inflation

15.8.07
The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.2 percent for the 12 months ending in July, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18902.html

The Archdruid Report

15.8.07

The carnage began with mortgage companies, not so long ago the darlings of the financial press. Eighty-odd of them have imploded in the last few months as they discovered that if you loan money to people who can’t pay it back – who’d have thought? – they can’t pay it back. Next it was the turn of hedge funds that speculated in mortgage debt, with two Bear Sterns funds leading the rush to insolvency

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/

A Bull Market in Fools

16.8.07
The one thing needful at the top of each bubble, the rabble also takes on the role of greatest sucker, too. Piling in as the smart money runs for the exits, the common or garden investor pays top price. He or she is then left holding the "asset" as its price collapses...and by that time, the Lear jets have long since cleared the tarmac...taking the money with them.

http://www.whiskeyandgunpowder.com/Archives/2007/20070817.html

Is This a Run on the Bank?

14.8.07
What Sentinel Management's Redemption Halt Really Means

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/sentinel-gs-equity-cash-market-money-fund/index/a/13704

Meltdown 'inside' Wall Street's brain

14.8.07
Seven rules for bull-and-bear predators in a 'brutal, manipulative world'

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/seven-rules-keeping-wall-streets/story.aspx?guid=%7BFD6E8E92%2D1066%2D48E1%2DBD24%2D49D6B2362AB9%7D

The $300 Trillion Time Bomb

If Warren Buffett can't figure out derivatives, can anybody?

Gen Re got into derivatives dealing in 1990 and became tied to global financial markets in ways it found difficult to predict. When Buffett bought the company in 1998, he quickly decided he wanted out. At Buffett’s behest, Brandon embarked on a task that lost Berkshire and Gen Re a cool $409 million before taxes. The experience led Buffett to write in his 2002 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders what has become the most memorable line about the instruments: “Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.”

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2007/03/29/The-300-Trillion-Time-Bomb#page1

Bernanke Panics & Gold Responds

11.8.07
In Globally Contained Liquidity Crunch I pointed out that the Fed was providing temporary loans (as repos) not capital to the markets. While true I missed something. What I missed involves the collateral the Fed is willing to take for those short term loans

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

WHAT WE KNOW

11.8.07
by Roger Conrad

How do you solve a liquidity crisis? The simple answer is to inject more liquidity into the financial system. The hard part is not pouring in too much and thereby setting off a speculative boom in the markets that leads to a greater meltdown later on
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/RConrad/2007/0811.html

Bear Stearns Says Battered Hedge Funds Are Worth Little

Bear Stearns told clients in its two battered hedge funds late yesterday that their investments, worth an estimated $1.5 billion at the end of 2006, are almost entirely gone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/business/18bond.html?ex=1185422400&en=5a30706d0cab857e&ei=5070&emc=eta1

US Begs China to Buy Subprime Mortgages

Mish Note: ECOMOMIC? The HUD could not even manage to spell economic correctly in their News Release.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Who's Holding The Bag?

There is an interesting article in the Financial Times article about Liquidity Threats and who is holding the toxic tranches
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/shedlock/shedlock070507.html

A must read in my opinion

Credit crunch will 'shred investment portfolios to ribbons'

The near collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds has lifted the rock on our 21st century mutant capitalism, exposing the bugs beneath to a rare shock of naked light.When creditors led by Merrill Lynch forced a fire-sale of assets, they inadvertently revealed that up to $2 trillion of debt linked to the crumbling US sub-prime and "Alt A" property market was falsely priced on books
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/07/02/ccview102.xml

PROPAGANDA WITH A CAPITAL 'P'

Anybody who believes that his or her 4% savings account is staying ahead of inflation is ill-informed
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/dollardaze/2007/0703.html

Another Great Depression?

The Fed's Role in the Bear Stearns Hedge Funds Meltdown
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6209

$250 Billion in Subprime Losses?

Is the subprime mortgage market collapsing before our eyes, or did we avoid a disaster as Bear Stearns stepped up to the plate with $3.2 billion to help its ailing funds? As we will see from the data, the problems in the subprime world are not over. The Fat Lady has not sung. But will the problems in this market contaminate the rest of the liquidity-driven markets? Is the party over?
http://www.safehaven.com/article-7870.htm