Ob'Lib's quick links

Même si l’économie se stabilisait, elle laissera des millions de personnes au chômage de manière plus ou moins permanente. Ajoutez à cela les personnes travaillant à temps partiel, et celles qui cherchent un emploi depuis si longtemps qu’on ne les compte même plus, ainsi que leurs familles — et on a un quart de la population sans argent à dépenser.

Henri Lepage confirme qu’il est un des observateurs les plus subtils de la réalité économique de notre temps

The number of Americans filing personal bankruptcies surged 9% in October and were on target for the highest annual total in four years, according to a report issued Wednesday.

fantastic compilation of climate realism based works

If Al Gore gets his way and governments undertake drastic measures to counter the fear of global warming, then Al Gore gets rich. It makes one wonder what his real motive is.

What separates Rand Paul from most other libertarian candidates (including his father) is that (…) Along with tremendous intellectual heft, Rand is a polished public speaker with a professional presence. In short, he is an ideal candidate for the libertarian cause. Rand Paul can sell the libertarian platform in a way that doesn’t sound crazy to the traditional Kentucky voter.

In all, banks stand to lose $200 billion to $300 billion on commercial real estate loans, estimates Richard Parkus, head of commercial real estate debt research at Deutsche Bank Securities.

Treasury Department officials said Wednesday they’re working closely with Congress to pass the legislation needed to boost the debt ceiling, currently at $12.1 trillion, and avoid an unprecedented default on the nation’s debt obligations.

Ces nouvelles exigences fournissent surtout au gouvernement un moyen de forcer les banques à avaler ses nouvelles émissions obligataires. Plutôt que d’avoir à trouver des créditeurs étrangers, les gouvernements des Etats-Unis et du Royaume-Uni auront un marché captif dans leur propre secteur financier.

This unraveling may not occur for a while, as easy money  can push asset prices higher for a while. But the longer and bigger the carry trades and the larger the asset bubble, the bigger will be the ensuing asset bubble crash. The Fed and other policymakers seem unaware of the monster bubble they are creating.

Dambisa Moyo: C’est l’aide elle-même qui a enfermé l’Afrique dans le piège de la pauvreté. C’est l’aide qui porte en elle le mal qu’elle prétend combattre. “Des millions de gens en Afrique sont plus pauvres aujourd’hui, à cause de l’aide internationale.”

Il n’a été noté aucun accroissement du nombre d’accident ni d’augmentation des vitesses pratiquées

Soros says the market is likely to remain buoyant throughout the remainder of 2009 and will likely face its reality of weak global growth in 2010. He says the rally has been driven by the government stimulus and little else. Soros says the recent uptick in bank earnings is essentially a fraud: “Those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers. These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government.”

Personal income decreased $15.5 billion (0.5 percent), while real disposable personal income decreased 3.4 percent, in contrast to an increase of 3.8 percent last quarter. Those are horrible numbers. The savings rate is down, which no doubt has misguided economists cheering, but people spending more than they make is one of the things that got us into trouble.

Ce que les gouvernement en font révèle une réalité bien différente de ce que suggère la sémantique du terme “développement durable”