Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Awaiting the Real Depression

Two bits of hot news on Friday – the employment report…and the action in the gold market.

According to the government, there were fewer people out of work in the month of November than there were in October. At least, that is the way the authorities tell it. The official jobless rate fell from its 26-year high of 10.2% down to a 26-year high of 10%. Good news, if you believe it’s the beginning of a trend.

The other big news is that gold fell $48. We’ll come back to that in a moment…

Elsewhere in the news, we find that bankers are lightening up – at least in their loans to speculators. Tony Jackson in The Financial Times says they’re at it again:

“US bankers are resuming their carefree habits as in the days of the credit boom. In lending to private equity, it seems they are once more issuing so called covenant-lite and payment-in-kind loans, whereby borrowers are freed from irksome conditions and can pay their annual interest by simply borrowing more. (more)

No comments:

Post a Comment