It looks like New Orleans may get hit by a major hurricane again. On the plus side, the majority of the oil rigs may be missed. Oil Drum has constant up dates.
Edit: More from Calculated Risk…..
We’re already seeing gas prices get hit. Shell Oil said it will pull all workers off platforms, along with nearly every other producer. More importantly, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port will halt taking crude this weekend; it’s the only deepwater oil port in the nation.
Nuts.
The official bean counters say that GDP grew by 3.3% in the second quarter. Naked Capitalism argues that this is the result of lies. I say it is the result of incompetence. Unlike Yves, I don’t find it hard to believe that the government can not keep track of its expenditures in very well.
Also, it has been known for a while that the government is not properly accounting for inflation. This is long standing I don’t think you can say that it is being done by one administration for political reasons.Since inflation picked up sharply in the second quarter, it stands to reason that this distorted the statistics by more then usual. I don’t think we need to hint that somebody went out there way to manipulate the statistics.
The difference between a good general and a bad general is simple. A good general wants to win; a bad general wants to avoid losing. Things like charisma, Intelligence, or training are of only minor importance.
Nothing demonstrates this better then the Civil War. George McClellan and Robert Lee had both graduated second in their class Click Here to continue reading.
One of the great puzzles of our current economic troubles is how come construction employment has held up so well. The answer is simple. There is such a shortage of skilled tradesmen that a slow down just means that some of them finally get to work a 40 hour week. That means they are making less money then they where before, but they are still employed.
According to survey respondents, contractors are devising a variety of strategies to overcome the shortfalls. Almost half the respondents reported a weekly work schedule of more than 40 hours. Two-thirds reported working their crews five days every week, and some schedules of 70 or more hours per week were reported.
The corollary to this that most of construction done recently is crap. There was not enough good people to do all the work being done even if the all the constructions companies had wanted to do good work. When people get done being outrage by all the obvious financial fraud that paid for boom, they are going to find that things were not done to any higher ethical standard on the bricks and motor end.
A surprise warning on earnings by Darden Restaurants Inc. suggests that sit-down restaurants will continue struggling through the fall after a dismal summer.
On Tuesday, the parent of Olive Garden and Red Lobster said its earnings for the fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 24 would be below Wall Street’s expectations, and lowered its profit forecast for the year ending May 31.
From CNN Money….. (H/T Naked Capitalism)
Among the nightmares lurking around the corner for the already battered housing and credit markets would be a meltdown at mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Although few are predicting an imminent need for a bailout just yet, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s recently placed an estimated price tag on this worst case scenario — $420 billion to $1.1 trillion of taxpayer’s money.
This dwarfs how much it cost to help banks during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. That cost taxpayers about $250 billion in today’s dollars.
That is just Standard & Poor’s worst case scenario of course. But even if you cut that figure in half we are talking about some serious money. And other people want cash as well. From CNBC…..
Lobbyists for the U.S. automakers—General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler—briefed White House officials, as well as U.S. Rep. John Dingell and other Michigan Democrats, on a possible bailout and plan to unveil the proposal after Labor Day, according to the report.
The plan is for the government to lend some $25 billion to the automakers in the first year at an interest rate of 4.5 percent, or about one-third what the companies are currently paying to borrow, the report said.
Under the proposal, the government would have the option of deferring any payment at all for up to five years, the article said.
Who can argue against this? Iraq gets reconstruction money. Banks get bailed out. Why not the Big Three? But somebody has to loan the money to the Federal Government so that it can do all this rescuing and saving the world type stuff. The Chinese are doing a great job of providing us with free money. Current 30 year treasury rates are 4.57. The Inflation rate has been running at over 5% the last couple of months. At those rates the Chinese are paying us to take their cash.
But their capacity to do this is not infinite.
The plant manager resigned. Very likely he was given some incentive to resign. Here’s a tip for detecting a sudden departure before it’s been announced: everyone who knows about it is having a good day. If they told you they were having a bad day you might ask why and they would have to think Click Here to continue reading.
From The Telegraph…..
The latest data from the Bank of Spain shows that the country’s banks have increased their ECB borrowing to a record €49.6bn (£39bn). A number have been issuing mortgage securities for the sole purpose of drawing funds from Frankfurt.
Britain’s honeybees have suffered catastrophic losses this year, according to a survey of the nation’s beekeepers, contributing to a shortage of honey and putting at risk the pollination of fruits and vegetables.
The survey by the British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) revealed that nearly one in three of the UK’s 240,000 honeybee hives did not survive this winter and spring.
Read this and weep. H/T Calculated Risk