A quick post.
I am wondering how it is that government is claiming and media are reporting that the economic recovery is under way.
How is it that Citi can announce they have decided to pay back TARP, the media can report this as if it is a done deal, and then a day later sort of ignore a crucial point, namely, that Citi is having trouble finding buyers to fund its payback scheme? Shouldn't Citi have figured that part out first?
I read a lot of news these days. I listen to NPR a lot. Not one reporter that I have found has investigated the crucial question: do Citi, BofA, Wells, and other banks still have loads of troubled assets on their books? Are they just paying back Treasury with funny money so that they can pay themselves big bucks again and get back to business as usual? There is no reason to believe otherwise.
As for the recovery, here's a sober piece about the financial state of the four big mortgage backers.
Be very careful. Don't start acting like 2010 will be the year to break your credit card back out. Stay frugal!
UPDATE: Just saw this answer to my question about BofA. Looks like there is still some accounting to be done in 2010.
It's interesting. All the people who said we weren't in a crisis to begin with are now saying we're almost out of it, and everyone believes them.
And the people who said there was a crisis coming (Peter Schiff and others from the Austrian school) are saying it's about to get a whole lot worse. And no one's listening to them.
I know history repeats itself and all, but this quickly?
Posted by: Travis Prinzi | December 17, 2009 at 05:32 AM