Stocks tumbled around the world as the subprime mortgage crisis drove the U.S. into recession and wrecked financial institutions. With credit scarce, some companies sought government loans or were forced into bankruptcy. Few shares performed well.
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via Bloomberg
Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money. I spent a little money and the waiter liked me. He appreciated my valuable qualities. He would be glad to see me, and would want me at his table. It would be a sincere liking because it would have a sound basis. I was back in France. —Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises.
I know its late Friday and I'm sorry for the rant but a headline across the tape forced my hand. From a speech on June 25th to the BIS that the Fed officially released today, Fed Vice Chairman Kohn said that "the root cause of our problems was the underpricing of risk as the financial sector interacted with nonfinancial sectors" and that "leverage was a symptom rather than a cause of the underlying crisis." He has a Ph.D and I don't but I want to correct him that easy money policy under Greenspan that had the fed funds rate at...
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