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Nikkei Falls 1.1% As Yen, Credit Worries WeighBy Aiko Hayashi Wed Dec 9, 2009 11:44pm * Credit woes in Dubai, Greece weigh on confidence - analyst * Sharp rebound rally may have come to an end - analyst * Suzuki down after Volkswagen deal announcement TOKYO, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average fell 1.1 percent on Thursday after a recent sharp rebound, as credit troubles overseas weighed on investor confidence and a stronger yen pressured shares of exporters. Suzuki Motor (7269.T) skidded nearly 5 percent, erasing the gain logged Wednesday on hopes for an alliance agreement with Volkswagen, after...

No Credit. No Economy. By Eric Fry 12/09/09 Laguna Beach, California – “The great American consumer deleveraging continues,” our colleagues at The 5-Minute Forecast observed yesterday. “The Fed announced that consumer credit shrank for a record ninth month in a row in October.” Consumer credit, as we all know, drives a big chunk of consumer spending, which drives a big chunk of the American economy. Ergo, no credit; no economy. But consumers are not the only borrowers between the Atlantic and the Pacific who contribute to economic activity. Commercial and industrial (C&I) borrowers also play a large role. The dots...

Developed Countries Rapidly Blowing AAA Ratings And Entering Debt Crisis Danger Zone Joe WeisenthalDec. 8, 2009, 3:43 PM Here's a fantastic chart from Moody's, courtesy of David Goldman, showing the ratings trajectory of various Western developed countries. Basically, Switzerland is the only country not to be racing headlong into the purple -- non-AAA -- zone. Says Goldman: Under US government projections, debt service will exceed 10% of GDP by 2013, which means that by one measure the US will move out of AAA territory. But the UK, Germany and France will be headed in the same direction.[snip]

Stuart Varney was just on Fox and said Moody's will lower the United States bond rating for the first time ever in 2013 with current spending plans.

The offer could tempt anyone buying holiday gifts: Open a store credit card and save 20 percent on your purchase. The smiling sales clerk makes it sound like a no-brainer, and explains there are absolutely no fees. You'll even get alerts about special sales and promotions. What won't be so eagerly volunteered is the high interest rate, or the impact applying can have on your credit score. Store cards are also limited and shouldn't be confused with co-branded cards. The latter carry Discover, Mastercard or Visa logos and can be used wherever those cards are accepted. There are times when...

Playing Tug Of War With Tthe Dollar Carry Trade And Risk Aversion Minyanville Staff Dec 01, 2009 8:40 am Today the “dollar carry trade” is back on as market strategists claim no contagion from Dubai. This perception is wrong, just as most strategists were wrong about saying that Subprime was contained. Problems at Dubai World aren't a lingering effect of “The Great Credit Crunch” but a clear warning that “The Great Credit Crunch” is far from over. (See also The Great Credit Crunch Is Deepening) It’s naïve to think that there aren't many more time bombs in the $206 trillion...

When convenience-store owner Dave Sutey looks at his bottom line, the second-largest expense is one you might not guess: Fees paid to credit-card companies and banks, to process credit-card purchases in his stores. “That’s ahead of rent, lease and payroll taxes,” says Sutey, whose 14 Thriftway Super Stop stores in southwest Montana have paid $312,000 in these fees the first 10 months of this year. “The profit of our entire industry is one-half of what the credit-card fees are.” Sutey and his allies in the retail industry, from gas stations to department stores, say they don’t mind paying something in...

Apparently a "Global Climate Center" was hacked and the contents have been posted to the Internet. A ZIP file exceeding 60MB and containing a huge number of emails and other documents has been posted worldwide. Original speculation as to whether the files posted were legitimate or some sort of spoof appears to now be confirmed as legitimate: “It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails.” I have not had time to read all of the material...

The Great Credit Crunch Is Deepening Minyanville Staff Nov 19, 2009 9:20 am Consumers will feel the effects in the form of tighter credit standards. Editor's Note: This article was written by Richard Suttmeier, chief market strategist at ValuEngine.com, which is a fundamentally-based quant research firm in Princeton, New Jersey, that covers more than 5,000 stocks every day. Within the proposed banking reform bill, the House Financial Services Committee wants banks and funds to make payments in advance for companies deemed “too-big-to-fail”. This fund will be capped at $200 billion, insuring that taxpayers won't wind up paying for a bailout...

_ Chalk up another national-security threat _ this one looming with each excess pound, failing grade and drug bust affecting young adults. An alarming 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would not qualify for military service today because they are physically unfit, failed to finish high school or have criminal records. So says a new report from an organization of education and military leaders calling for immediate action on the early-education front. While some experts voiced doubt that obesity and other societal ills would keep three out of four young adults out of the ranks, the report titled...

Gold Slips To $1100 As UK Faces Potential Credit Ratings Downgrade Commodities / Gold & Silver 2009 Nov 10, 2009 - 07:43 AM By: Adrian_Ash THE PRICE OF WHOLESALE gold slipped 1% from Monday's new record high early in London today, briefly drifting through $1100 an ounce as Asian stock markets closed the day higher but European shares held flat. Crude oil ticked back down to $80 per barrel, but remained higher by one-third from this time last year. The US Dollar held steady after Monday's sharp losses. Ten-year Treasury bonds offered 3.45% in yield. "A correction is reasonable after...

When the Borrowers Stop Borrowing By Bill Bonner 11/09/09 Beunos Aires, Argentina – The Dow moved up 17 points on Friday, leaving it above the 10,000 mark. Gold rose too – it is at a new record high, only $5 below $1,100.(The DJIA closed today up 203 points) According to the news reports, the US economy is ‘growing’ again. Yes, that’s the official storyline. But wait, what kind of growth is this? David Rosenberg: “All we can say is that if the overwhelming consensus is correct that the recession is behind us, then what we have on our hands is...

The fiscal strain of deteriorating pension funding levels on local and state governments could contribute to downgrades in the next several years, especially among those governments that entered the recession with poor funding ratios or have little flexibility in their funding requirements, a new report from Moody’s Investors Service warns. In the near term, the impact of dwindling investment returns as a result of the market downturn is broad and adds yet another layer of fiscal stress on governments already faced with faltering tax revenues, heightened demand for social services, and pressure to scale back pension contributions to balance their...

Consumer Credit: AwfulFriday, November 6, 2009 Posted by Karl Denninger Where are my green shoots? Consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 6 percent in the third quarter of 2009. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 10 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3-3/4 percent. In September, consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 7-1/4 percent. Yuck. Here's the graphical representation. Nothing good in here. The non-revolving flattened out some in September (gee, you think "cash for clunkers" might have influenced August and September?) but revolving credit - that is, credit cards...

U.S. stocks erased most of a 156- point rally in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after a House bill to curb credit-card rates spurred concern about bank earnings, outweighing the Federal Reserve's plan to keep interest rates at a record low. Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. led financial shares to the steepest loss among 10 industries as the vote moved up the start date of many rule changes that will make it more difficult for lenders to raise rates on existing credit cards. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index wiped out most of a...

I have been job-hunting for some time now and applying for jobs online. I applied for one job in particular which is an office job and received the following email in response to my application and resume: "I have reviewed your resume and I am very interested in hiring you. Before I can setup an appointment, I would need your recent credit score. Your credit score is required because the position you applied for includes handling company cash and using a company credit card. Don't worry, if your score is low for a legitimate reason, you will have an opportunity...

Deflation Fears As Eurozone And US Credit ContractsBank lending to firms and households in the eurozone has fallen for the first time, raising fears of an economic relapse and a slide into deflation next year. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Published: 8:26PM GMT 27 Oct 2009 Data from the European Central Bank shows that the M3 broad money supply has contracted over the last six months, confounding expectations that ultra-low interest rates would soon boost monetary growth. Loans to the private sector fell 0.3pc from a year earlier, the first such decline since the data started in 1983. The M3 figures include...

Online spending down as holiday season nears Recession puts brakes on fast-paced growth of e-commerce By Ylan Q. Mui Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 24, 2009 Online retail's runaway growth has hit a wall as consumers have cut back on the discretionary spending that drives the industry's sales. According to research firm comScore, e-commerce sales have been steadily declining this year, with spending not including travel dropping 2 percent in the third quarter. That has set the stage for a tough holiday season, which can account for as much as half of annual sales. "It's not pretty at all...

Possible Credit Dislocation: Be WarnedFriday, October 23. 2009 Posted by Karl Denninger in Musings I have reason to suspect that the "monetary transmission mechanism" is full of rocks (again), and we are about to have another instance of what could colloquially be called "fun." (Yes, that's sarcasm.) Here's what we know and what I can deduce from it: * JP Morgan's "cash position" was analyzed by a writer who published on SCRIBD, which showed that actual cash held has deteriorated radically. By more than half in the last year. The deterioration is continuing, not slowing. * I am hearing repeated...

I have reason to suspect that the "monetary transmission mechanism" is full of rocks (again), and we are about to have another instance of what could colloquially be called "fun." (Yes, that's sarcasm.) Here's what we know and what I can deduce from it: JP Morgan's "cash position" was analyzed by a writer who published on SCRIBD, which showed that actual cash held has deteriorated radically. By more than half in the last year. The deterioration is continuing, not slowing. I am hearing repeated anecdotes from multiple areas that foreclosed property held by banks with multiple full-price offers that include...

No law, including the Credit CARD Act that has started to take effect, prevents banks from closing down credit accounts without warning. Credit card issuers all maintain the right...

John Mckinnon at the WSJ reports: Home-Buyer Credit Is Focus of Inquiry The Internal Revenue Service is examining more than 100,000 suspicious claims for the first-time home-buyer tax break ... The tax credit is completely refundable, even if the homebuyer has no tax liability - and this makes it a target for fraud. From the IRS: "[The tax credit is] fully refundable, meaning the credit will be paid out to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax owed." Also, the credit is separate from the closing, and the WSJ article suggests...

"The first thing they do is laugh. They think it is one of the most ridiculous things out there." Gordon Hageman is talking about a credit card offer that just came in the mail, an offer he could hardly believe. "I think they are trying to take advantage of me. I think that's what's going on right now with the economy, maybe just trying to see what they can get away with," says Hageman. And this card comes with an interest rate you won't believe. Not 20 or 30 percent, not even 50 or 60 percent, the Mastercard offer from...

Gordon Hageman couldn’t believe the credit card offer he got in the mail. "My first thought, it was a mistake," Hageman said. The wine distributor called the number on the offer, gave them the offer code and verified his information. Sure enough, it was right: the pre-approved credit card came with a 79.9 percent APR. Yes, 79.9 percent.

It is a cliché that if we do not study the past we are condemned to repeat it. Almost equally certain, however, is that if there are lessons to be learned from an historical episode, the political class will draw all the wrong ones — and often deliberately so. Far from viewing the past as a potential source of wisdom and insight, political regimes have a habit of employing history as an ideological weapon, to be distorted and manipulated in the service of present-day ambitions. That’s what Winston Churchill meant when he described the history of the Soviet Union as...

German 'Wise Men' Fear Credit Crunch In 2010 Germany's leading institutes have warned that the pace of economic recovery is "unsustainable" and that the country's banks may face a fresh crisis over the next year as bad debts surface in earnest. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 7:31PM BST 15 Oct 2009 The Wise Men said Germany's economy would contract by 5pc this year 'There is still a significant risk of further shocks to the international financial system,' said a joint report by the five 'Wise Men', a panel that advises the government. Emergency action by the European Central...

THE worst may be over for America’s financial markets, but they are still abnormal. Bill Dudley, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, captured the mood in a recent speech, bluntly titled “A bit better, but very far from best”. In a survey released this week, members of the National Association of Business Economics said markets would continue to drag on economic growth until at least mid-2010. For many the big question is whether a lack of credit is holding back America’s nascent recovery. In a sign of easing conditions, usage of the Fed’s special liquidity facilities has...

Q: Is it true that if I use my credit card at fast food places, my credit score will decrease or that it will affect my score in some way because it looks like I cannot afford to buy food? I pay my bill in full every month. -- Burger and Fries Lover A: Dear Burger: The fast answer is no, where you eat doesn't have an impact on your credit score, but that's not the full story. Your credit score is just one of the many factors that issuers use when making lending decisions, and while paying plastic for...

The 'Democratization of Credit' Is Over -- Now It's Payback Time By S. MITRA KALITA NEW YORK -- Karen King owes nearly $36,000, more than she's ever earned in a year. All day long, bill collectors call. She hunts for a second job, sometimes skips meals, and stays with other family members at a grandfather's crowded apartment, trying to get out of debt and turn her life around. She largely holds herself at fault. "Years ago, I lived for now. It was so stupid," the 28-year-old says. "It's depressing, but I can't live that life anymore." Now, she says, "I...

*U.S. AUGUST CONSUMER CREDIT WAS FORECAST TO DROP BY $10 BILLION *U.S. AUGUST NON-REVOLVING BORROWING FALLS BY $2.07 BILLION *U.S. AUGUST CREDIT CARD, OTHER REVOLVING DEBT FALLS $9.91 BLN *U.S. JULY CREDIT FALLS $19 BLN, REVISED FROM $21.6 BLN DROP *U.S. AUGUST CONSUMER CREDIT FALLS $12.0 BILLION, FED SAYS Without "cash for clunkers" it would have been significantly worse of course. Best guess non-revolving would have been down close to $10 billion, so roughly equal to July. There's no possible good way to spin this. There is no sign that credit expansion has reappeared, there is no sign that we...

Consumer Credit: Disaster, Down $12 BillionWednesday, October 7. 2009 Posted by Karl Denninger in Consumer at 15:24 *U.S. AUGUST CONSUMER CREDIT WAS FORECAST TO DROP BY $10 BILLION *U.S. AUGUST NON-REVOLVING BORROWING FALLS BY $2.07 BILLION *U.S. AUGUST CREDIT CARD, OTHER REVOLVING DEBT FALLS $9.91 BLN *U.S. JULY CREDIT FALLS $19 BLN, REVISED FROM $21.6 BLN DROP *U.S. AUGUST CONSUMER CREDIT FALLS $12.0 BILLION, FED SAYS Without "cash for clunkers" it would have been significantly worse of course. Best guess non-revolving would have been down close to $10 billion, so roughly equal to July. There's no possible good way to...

On The Losing Side Of A Credit Battle By Bill Bonner 10/06/09 London, England Where have all the jobs gone long time passing Where have all the jobs gone long time ago Where have all the jobs gone Gone to graveyards everyone When will they ever return Oh when will they ever return – Sung to the tune of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” “Many lost jobs in US will never come back…” says The Wall Street Journal. Need we explain why? Because they’re not lost, waiting to be rediscovered. They’re not missing in action, to be repatriated after...

In First National Bank v. Daly (often referred to as the "Credit River" case) the court found: that the bank created money "out of thin air": [The president of the First National Bank of Montgomery] admitted that all of the money or credit which was used as a consideration [for the mortgage loan given to the defendant] was created upon their books, that this was standard banking practice exercised by their bank in combination with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneaopolis, another private bank, further that he knew of no United States statute or law that gave the Plaintiff [bank]...

tain "Within A Whisker Of losing Is Triple a Credit Rating" By Jeremy Warner September 22nd, 2009 Can Britain afford the massive increase in sovereign debt it is clocking up in paying for the structural deficit and the recession? Only just, assumptions used by the Treasury in drawing up its forecasts for the public finances reveal. It could swing either way. One of the most striking features of confidential Treasury papers leaked last week to the Tories was the projected growth in the numbers for debt interest. This is assumed to rise from “just” £27.2bn this financial year to a...

"If that global allowance was distributed according to population levels, many developed nations would face almost immediate carbon bankruptcy. With 4.6 per cent of global population, the US would receive a 35 billion tonne allowance between now and 2050, which it would use up in around six years at current rates. The European Union's budget would run out in 12 years and China's in 24. "It is clear that the industrialised countries must carry out rapid and comprehensive decarbonisation if they wish to present themselves as credible advocates of global climate protection," concludes the council. The US carbon budget would...

This is pretty interesting... and infuriating. Remember the "scare" recently when The FBI descended on Queens NY on some sort of terrorism tip? The FBI is grilling this guy, a Denver man: The Afghan national at the center of a reputed Al Qaeda terror cell probe was trying to cut a deal Friday after two days of FBI grilling, sources told the Daily News. Ok, good enough. Except for this... Between 2005 and 2008, he opened credit card accounts with Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, Discover and Citibank and ran up a debt of more than $50,000. When he...

"Whether through exuberant hedgies or anxious private investors, gold just keeps pushing higher..." SO SPECULATIVE BETTING on gold going higher now equals a record-busting 752-tonne position in Comex futures and options, yet this is not a bubble according to Michael Pento of Deltaga. Let's say otherwise. Let's say that gold prices, surging by almost $100-per-ounce in barely a month, are very much in a bubble...blown up by near-zero interest rates worldwide and a sharply negative cost of borrowing after inflation. Were that the case, the question before potential and existing investors would be simple: Is this "irrational exuberance" or a...

Red Bluff woman launches credit card revoltBy David Benda Posted September 17, 2009 at midnight RED BLUFF - Ann Minch's vow to stop making payments on her Bank of America credit card has captured a nation. Upset that the bank raised her interest rate to 30 percent, the 46-year-old Red Bluff native vented her outrage on video and uploaded it to YouTube. She calls the four-minute, 28-second clip "the proverbial first shot in an American Debtors Revolution," and it has struck a chord with the public. Minch will be in San Francisco today doing a live TV interview for the...

Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc customers defaulted on their credit card debts in August at the highest rates since the onset of the recession, a sign that the banks' consumer lending woes are far from over.

Both bank credit and the M3 money supply in the United States have been contracting at rates comparable to the onset of the Great Depression since early summer, raising fears of a double-dip recession in 2010 and a slide into debt-deflation.

Credit scores have been getting a lot of attention lately, as lenders tighten credit standards and contend with new legislation that has, among other things, reined in how credit-card issuers can raise rates. Meanwhile, several firms, preying on our insecurities, are pushing credit scores and credit-score-tracking services for a monthly fee. For all the attention they generate, though, credit scores are largely misunderstood. For instance, your precise score matters only when you're in need of new debt, like a home, auto or education loan or a new credit card, which should be a fairly rare occurrence. You don't have just...

Article published on Bloomberg.com(restrictions apply to quotation or copying). Here is link to article! U.S. consumer credit plunged $21.6 billion for July, which was 5 times projected by economists, and is a 10% drop in total credit. June credit plunge had originally been projected at $10.3 billion and was revised to $15.5 billion. Banks are restricting lending terms and job losses make Americans reluctant to borrow. WHOA!This HUGE contraction of credit is getting worse, not better as the liars in Washington have been saying.

Soaring deficits cast a shadow over the dollar Irwin Stelzer: American Account Recommend? (3) $2,000,000,000,000. That’s the amount by which the Obama administration raised its 10-year estimate of the nation’s budget deficit from the $7 trillion it guessed only a few months ago, a 30% error. It seems that expenses are higher than estimated — up 24% this year, the largest increase since the height of the Korean war — and revenues are lower. There’s worse. The new estimate assumes that Medicare and Medicaid (government healthcare) spending will be cut by $622 billion, even though Congress has made it known...

The recent uptick in home sales, green shoots of new housing starts and rebounding stock market may suggest that the long-awaited turn in the U.S. economy is here. But is this daylight at the end of the tunnel or the beam of an oncoming locomotive of commercial real estate insolvency coming down the tracks on a collision course with a shaky economy? Commercial real estate (CRE), valued at $3.5 trillion in the U.S., has experienced a 39% decline in prices from the peak only two years ago, according to the MIT Center for Real Estate. This drop is greater than...

<p>I want to put forward something objective and impossible to argue with: MATH.</p> <p>Now let's focus on the underlying fundamental reality of consumer-generated GDP and economic activity in general, and the impact of what I call the rate spread on that activity.</p>

Sears Foreshadows The Credit Storm Ahead Wow! Welcome back Carter (Era Credit Crunch)! This came in the mail today. All business, they did not even bother to include it in a monthly statement. It came all by it’s lonesome in a postcard size folded pamphlet.

<p>Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival.</p> <p>Ok. Now how about this one?</p>

Video at site Another happy forecast from Elliot Wave gury Bob Prechter (who may waste his time staring at charts most of the day, but also talks fundamentals): Peter Gorenstein, TechTicker: In July, Ben Bernanke told a town hall meeting, "I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression." According to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in that regard he's succeeded. Bernanke's rescue of the financial sector in tandem with the Obama Administration's stimulus plan prevented a "full replay" of the Great Depression, the Nobel Prize-winning economist writes. But like President...

And Obama saith unto you, "Insurance companies will be prohibited from denying insurance coverage based on a pre-existing medical condition. Period." And there was a health care famine in the land...

HARRY Markopolos -- the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff who proved to be much smarter than the SEC -- says there are evildoers out there who will make the Ponzi scum "look like small-time." Markopolos gave a speech to 400 of the faithful at the Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton and predicted major scandals will soon be revealed about the unregulated, $600 trillion, credit-default swap market.