An update on the economy Part I
Daniel Alpert is a managing director of Westwood Captial and Thomas F Steyer is Co-Managing Partner of Farallon Capital Management
Part II
Monday, March 23, 2009
Consumer Credit outstanding fell $14.8b in Sept seasonally adjusted, almost $5b more than expected and marks the 11th month in the past 12 of declines. At $2.456T outstanding, it is 4.9% below the record high in July '08. After a flat reading in Aug, (didn't fall b/c of the CARS program), non revolving debt outstanding fell by $4.9B. Revolving (mostly credit cards) balances outstanding fell by $9.9B. To fully put into perspective today's data, look at the current level of consumer credit (doesn't include mortgages, the biggest chunk of consumer credit) relative to GDP. As of Q3, it totaled 17.2%...
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March 25th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Barry:
Thank you again. The more this problem gets run through my cognitive grinder the more sense it eventually makes.
March 26th, 2009 at 6:04 am
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHkQoiELmnpc&refer=worldwide
Brown ‘Terribly Fragile’ After Bond Auction Flops
“Brown’s strategy now looks terribly fragile,” said Mark Wickham-Jones, a professor of politics at Bristol University. “His situation is economically extremely uncertain, politically risky and this auction again highlights how we are now in un- chartered territory.”
The Treasury yesterday tried to sell 1.75 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) of 40-year gilts and got 1.63 billion pounds of bids, a sign that investors are reluctant to finance his record borrowing.
…..hmmmmm…….Coming soon to a theatre near you?…..