Crash Survival Zone

The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government has issued a State Revenue Flash Report discussing an across the board enormous drop in personal income tax revenues.

Total personal income tax collections in January-April 2009 were 26 percent, or about $28.8 billion below the level of a year ago in states for which we have data. In [...]

By Dave Lindorff

… While the Obama administration and the Treasury and the Fed are bulldozing funds into the coffers of the big banks, allegedly to get them to lend, the banks, from the largest to the smallest, are pulling back, afraid that borrowers will end up going bust on them. So much for economic stimulus [...]

By Les Leopold

The Obama Administration has put together a wide-ranging set of reforms that attempts to re-regulate the financial sector. It calls for a new consumer protection agency to protect us from mortgage mischief. For the first time, it regulates some (but not all) derivatives. It calls for new controls on “too-big-to-fail” institutions. It attempts [...]

With more and more major economists predicting recovery sometime later this year, many have forgotten that downside risks remain.  Berner, Roubini, Volcker, Krugman and Bernanke have all come out essentially saying they would not be surprised to see a ‘technical’ recovery at some point later this year.  Robert Gordon has gone as far as to [...]

By Paul Krugman

The debate over economic policy has taken a predictable yet ominous turn: the crisis seems to be easing, and a chorus of critics is already demanding that the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration abandon their rescue efforts. For those who know their history, it’s déjà vu all over again — literally.

For this [...]

Loan volume at the 21 largest recipients of government funding fell 7% during the month of April, according to a survey by the Treasury Department.

Lending at the nation’s top banks slowed in April, according to a government report published Monday, driven in part by continued deterioration in the U.S. economy.

The dollar amount of new loans [...]

U.S. credit card defaults rose to record highs in May, with a steep deterioration of Bank of America Corp’s lending portfolio, in another sign that consumers remain under severe stress.

Delinquency rates — an indicator of future credit losses — fell across the industry, but analysts said the decline was due to a seasonal trend, as [...]

International purchases of American financial assets grew more slowly in April as China, Japan and Russia pared demand for Treasuries, underscoring the danger of U.S. reliance on foreigners to finance its fiscal deficit.
Total net purchases of long-term equities, notes and bonds rose a net $11.2 billion, compared with buying of $55.4 billion in March, the [...]

By now, you’ve probably heard of the much-ballyhooed “green shoots” in the economy. On Friday, the Dow actually closed positive for 2009, leading some commentators to begin championing an increasingly optimistic rhetoric. In fact, in a recent survey of 53 economists by the Wall Street Journal, the consensus was that the recession would end in [...]

By Samah El-Shahat

In my last column I introduced the idea that America’s handling of the financial crisis, and in particular the way it has refused to deal with the banks, is more in keeping with how an “emerging” economy might behave and act.

So this week, I will say that America has become a bank-owned state, [...]