Wolf Richter

How Crazy Is The Auto Financing Frenzy?

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A “positive spiral effect?” Lenders are closing their eyes, sales are soaring, risks are piling up, auto loan balances jumped 15% in 12 months to an all-time high, and repossessions in the subprime segment more than doubled.

Growing Expectations Of TBTF Bank Creditor Bailouts Tighten Their Tentacles Around Taxpayers

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One of the few rebellious Fed heads, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, fired a salvo when testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. He hit Wall Street risks covered by implicit government guarantees in the size of America’s GDP.

Strung-out Consumers, Desperate Retailers, Crummy Sales

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Tally: 7 deaths, 90 injuries from shootings, stabbings, tramplings, fights, pepper sprayings…. “Only in America people trample each other for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have,” a tweet explained. It’s been tough for retailers too.

Unemployment Crisis Hits Economic Wunderkind Austria

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In Eurostat’s “harmonized” unemployment rates for EU Member States, Austria is the glory land for job seekers: 4.8% unemployment, in first place, a universe apart from Spain (26.7%) and Greece (27.3%). But this “harmonized” rate is bologna. Austria is facing a growing crisis.

This Inflation Is Supposed To Be GOOD For Japanese Workers?

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Japan’s new economic religion of printing yourself out of trouble works. For the elite. This is a lesson learned from the Fed. But how are workers and consumers faring? And by implication the real economy?

How Much Is My Private Data Worth? (Google Just Offered Me Money)

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The first thing I noticed after I’d removed the glossy brochure from the envelope was the crisp $5 bill. I’m a sucker for free money. After peeling it off the letter, I started reading. It was from Google and involved a lot more money – in return for just about all my private data.

Young Woman in China Buy Maseratis

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In the US and Europe, 95% of the buyers are male. Average age is 55. What’s different in China?

The Stock Bubble In Context (Will The Last Bear Please Turn Out The Lights?)

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Stock market bubbles – they allow investors to make the mostest the fastest – don’t happen in a vacuum. They happen in a context. But this time, the context is different. Very different.

French Megabank: “Germany Should Leave The Eurozone”

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Suddenly, there’s a solution to France’s economic crisis. Unlike the cacophonous clamor from the far right to drop the euro, this one is attractively presented with graphs and in terms that even a French politician might understand. And it’s not contaminated by partisanship.

Seems The NSA Spied On Me When I Lived In Belgium

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Another Edward Snowden revelation indicates that I, a humble, incoherent, harmless, and (mostly) law-abiding American, may have gotten tangled up in the NSA’s vast spying dragnet for inexplicable reasons of national security. It’s getting personal.