Items of Interest:
www.bea.gov:
Gross Domestic Product -- Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third ...
discussion:
Econbrowser / Economics Roundtable: Oh yes it's a recession all right
Tim / The Mess That Greenspan Made: U.S. economy contracts at 3.8 percent pace
Seeking Alpha / Pfblogs.org : Random Observations on the GDP Announcement
related:
TIME.com:
GDP Drop: Not As Bad As Feared, But Worse Is Ahead — The government reported that fourth quarter GDP contracted at an annual rate of 3.8%. That does not approach the 7.8% in the second quarter of 1980 or the 10.4% post-war record set in the first quarter of 1958...
Calculated Risk:
GDP Declines 3.8% in Q4 — I'll have more a little later ... From the BEA: GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: FOURTH QUARTER 2008 (ADVANCE) From MarketWatch: U.S. Q4 GDP down 3.8%, inventories limit downturn The U.S. economy contracted at a 3.8% annualized rate in the fourth quarter but the decline would have been worse except that the government counts an unwanted buildup of goods ...
Peter Cohan / BloggingStocks:
Great news: GDP shrinks only 3.8% in Q4 — Filed under: Economic data , Politics , Recession , Financial Crisis The final quarter of the great national nightmare -- our 43rd president -- ended with the worst quarterly performance of our GDP since 1982, when Ronald Reagan was in office. The 3.8% decline in Q4 was the worst quarterly result since a 6.4% annualized plunge in the first ...
Giuliani: Corporate plums help keep NYC afloat — Bonuses for Wall Street fat cats are easy political fodder in uncertain economic times, but former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Friday cutting corporate bonuses means slashing jobs in the Big Apple...
discussion:Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC: MCCASKILL UNLOADS ON WALL ST. ‘IDIOTS’Chris / AMERICAblog News: Giuliani supports Wall Street bonuses despite being failuresJohn Riley / Spin Cycle: Rudy: Wall Street bonuses are great!!!Erik Larson / Bloomberg: Cuomo Said to Eye Return of $4 Billion in Early Merrill BonusesJessica Pressler / New York Magazine: Giuliani Sticks His Nose Into Bonus BusinessJosh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: STIMULUS BY BONUS — According to Rudy Giuliani …Roy Edroso / Runnin' Scared: Giuliani Sides Against Obama, Says Bonuses “Create Employment”
CNN:
Obama Calls Bonuses ‘Shameful’ as Dodd Vows to Reclaim Money
Discussion:Ali Frick / Think Progress:
DownWithTyranny!: Rudy To The Rescue— Defending The Rights Of The Rich To Plunder The Rest Of Us
Tom Taulli / BloggingStocks: Government's claws waiting for private equity?
Zachary Roth / TPMMuckraker: Cuomo's Office Looking At Several Fixes For Merrill Bonuses
Yves Smith / naked capitalism: Congressional Sound and Fury Over Wall Street Bonuses Sure to Signify Nothing
Giuliani Defends Wall Street Bonuses While Slamming Tax Cuts For The Poor -- Yesterday, reacting to a New York State Comptroller report showing that Wall Street banks doled out $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008, President Obama denounced the practice as “shameful.” “That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful, and part of what we’re going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility,”...
Appearing this morning on CNN, however, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani stridently defended the practice of enormous bonuses untethered to actual performance, warning that ending the tradition “really will create unemployment” ...
discussion:Rachelle Younglai / Reuters: TARP overseer wants stricter executive compensationPERRspectives Blog: Republicans Brand Ronald Reagan Socialist Welfare KingRichard Starr / Weekly Standard: ‘Profit’ Is Not a Dirty Word
Make them buy stock -- Rather than claw back already-paid bonuses of about $18 billion, as some grandstanding Democrats suggest, Wall Street firms should issue common stock to employees in that amount and require them to invest the after-tax portion of their cash bonuses in the stock of their firms. The proceeds should be used to repay the government for funds injected into their firms. That will satisfy the public, which quite reasonably objects to the use of its tax money to compensate bankers who make an order of magnitude or two more than the average taxpayer, and it will incentivize the bankers to work hard and manage risks well...
Give Back The Bonuses -- Wall Street has no business rewarding itself this year.
It is refreshing to have a president capable of telling economic truths...
Cuts Coming Next Week at ‘The Wall Street Journal’ -- When Gerard Baker starts his new job as The Wall Street Journal's new deputy editor in chief next Wednesday, he'll have a lot of names to learn. But not quite as many as if he'd started sooner.
According to multiple sources within and close to the Journal, the newsroom is due to undergo another round of personnel cuts late next week. It's unclear exactly how many employees will be affected, but two sources put the number of people being targeted at 50...
discussion:Peter Kafka / MediaMemo: A News Corp. Bull Throws in the Towel; Wall Street Journal Layoffs Coming?Glynnis / FishBowlNY: All is Not Rosy for Rupe: Layoffs at WSJ? News Corp DowngradedHamilton Nolan / Gawker: Rupert Murdoch is Having a Hard Time
- A Proposal to Prevent Total Failure - Lasse Pedersen & Nouriel Roubini, FT
- We Must Concentrate on 'Shadow' Banking System - Bill Gross, PIMCO
- Bank Bailout: More Money, More Problems - Colin Barr, Fortune
- Bob Rubin Wants Your Kids to Pay for the Crisis - David Reilly, Bloomberg
- With Stimulus, Is It 'Beggar Thy Children'? - Rob Arnott, RealClearMarkets
- Crisis Has Changed Conservative Constraints - David Malpass, Forbes
- Forget The Stimulus; Think Long-Term - George Shultz, Wall Street Journal
- Simplifying The Stimulus Debate - Megan McArdle, The Atlantic
- A Global Credit Squeeze Is Felt Unevenly - Floyd Norris, New York Times
- Rebuilding America's Job Machine - Pete Engardio, BusinessWeek
- Joe Blow Needs Spending Money, Not Tax Cuts- Michael Sesit, Bloomberg
- To Stimulate, We Must Also Depress - Walter Williams, Washington Times
- Geithner vs. Summers: Inside Treasury's Turf War - Noam Scheiber, TNR
- Why the Bank Bailouts Are Doomed - Jon Markman, MSN Money
- 'Buy America' Is Awful Economic Policy - Rosemary Righter, Times of London
- The New Financial Bubble Is Here - Jim Jubak, MSN Money
- Environmentalism Is Good For the Economy - Robert Pollin, The Nation
- Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Editorial, Investor's Business Daily
- In Trying Times Economists Get Back to Basics - William Easterly, Forbes
- Macroeconomic 'Experts' Apply Astrology, Not Science - Frank Tipler, RCM
- Obama's Catnip for Conservatives - Rich Karlgaard, Digital Rules
- Zachary Karabell’s Guidance on Guidance - Paul Toscano, Rapid Recap
- Why Would We Seek To Create a 'Bad' Bank? - Willem Buiter, MaverEcon
- Best Economic Indicator You've Never Heard Of - Mark Perry, Carpe Diem
- Wall Street: This Stimulus Is Pretty Lousy - Robert Holmes, TheStreet.com