Items of Interest:
The Numbers:
- November Housing Starts 625,000 vs. 736,000 consensus estimate, October starts revised to 771,000 from 791,000 [based on an annual rate]
- November Core CPI +1.1% vs +1.5% consensus, prior +3.7%
- November Core CPI month/month comparison: +0.0% vs +0.1% consensus
- November CPI y/y +1.5% vs +1.1% consensus
- November Building Permits 616,000 vs 700,000 consensus
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CNNMoney:Housing permits, starts hit record lows -- Housing permits fell more than 15% to an annual rate of 616,000 last month, the Commerce Department said, while starts slid nearly 19% to an annual rate of 625,000....
CNNMoney:
Consumer prices fall by record 1.7% -- Prices fell by the greatest amount since the Department of Labor began publishing seasonally adjusted changes in February 1947...
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Bailout Nation Debate:Washington Post:
Majority of Public Opposes Auto Rescue — Poll Finds Most Blame Industry for Problems, Believe Failure Won't Hurt Economy — Most Americans continue to oppose a government-backed rescue plan for Detroit's Big Three automakers as majorities blame the industry for its own problems …
Discussion:Art Levine / The Huffington Post: Is GOP risking the economy to win the PR war against unions?Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: ABC/WaPo poll: Majority of Americans oppose Big 3 bailoutJames Joyner / Outside The Beltway: Public Opposes Auto BailoutPrairie Weather: America looks worried and says “uh oh”Doug Mataconis / Below The Beltway: American Public Continues To Oppose Auto Bailout
Eugene Robinson / Washington Post: Only a Lunatic Wants Big Three to Fail
Related:
Kurt Brouwer / Fundmastery
GM & Toyota - A Tale of Two Car Companies - Last year, both companies sold lots of car and trucks. In fact, total worldwide sales were almost the same so each company did pretty well...
Todd J. Zywicki / Wall Street Journal:— Washington hates the idea because it would lose leverage. — While Washington tries to arrange a bailout, the Detroit Three auto makers and their union, the United Auto Workers, keep insisting that bankruptcy would be the kiss of death. ...Discussion:
Andy McCarthy / The Corner:
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Reuters:Shock waves spread from Madoff scandal -- Shock waves from Bernard Madoff's alleged fraud spread globally on Monday, as charities, wealthy individuals and banks disclosed losses from the prominent Wall Street trader's investment management business.
Britain's HSBC Holdings Plc was the latest bank to join the growing list, saying it had exposure of around $1 billion, making it one of the biggest victims of the alleged $50 billion fraud.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Man Group Plc in the United Kingdom, Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc and France's Natixis SA also said they were hit by the worldwide scandal...
- The Conman and the Sharp Suit - Daniel Finkelstein, Times of London
- What Happened to Madoff's Watchdogs? - David Weidner, MarketWatch
- How to Make a Bernard Madoff - Ben Levisohn, Business Week
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Diana Olick / CNBC Realty Check:Foreclosures: Are Home Buyers Missing An Opportunity? -- You’d think now would be a great time to buy a foreclosed property, but a majority of Americans don’t think so. A new survey from real estate search site Trulia.com and foreclosure sale site RealtyTrac.com finds that only 47 percent of those surveyed would consider buying a foreclosed property, that’s down from 54 percent last spring....
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- Five Opportunities to Beat World Recession - Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg
- Joseph Stiglitz, and the Failed Ideas of Economists - John Tamny, RCM
- How We All Will End the Recession - Brian Wesbury & Bob Stein, Forbes
- This Isn't the Time for Sarbox II - Eric Smith, RealClearMarkets
- Lower Oil Price Calls for Fresh Set of Rules - Nick Butler, Financial Times
- The Unwisdom of Financial Crowds - Christopher Caldwell, Weekly Standard
- How the Fed Reached Out to Lehman - Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times
- Inflation, Deflation, Which Is It? - Cactus, Angry Bear Blog
- Downturn Stems from Fear, Green Growth - Daniel Ben-Ami, Fund Strat.
- $1,000,000,000,000 of Stimulus? - Scott Grannis, Calafia Beach Pundit
- U.S. Must Stop Behaving Like a Banana Republic - David Asman, Fox Bus.
- Mad About 4.5% Mortgages - Rich Karlgaard, Digital Rules
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