So how’s the economy doing? Let’s take a look!
New York Times: U.S. GDP shrank by 6.1% in the first quarter, far worse than the “consensus” prediction of 4.7%.
Bloomberg: A full third of the country’s biggest banks need additional capital, according to leaked preliminary results of the Treasury’s stress tests.
RGE Monitor: According to a government report leaked to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, bad assets in the German banking system total slightly over a trillion dollars. Over half of bad assets worldwide are in the European banking system, which has done much less to recognize them than we have in the U.S.
Wall Street Journal: Business fixed investment in the U.S. was down a whopping 37.8% last quarter.
Want some good news to go with that? Sorry! Apparently personal consumption was up 2.2%, which is probably a mixed blessing, and home prices were down 18% compared to last year, but didn’t quite fall at a record rate. That’s the best I can do. Ed Yardeni tries to do better, but one of the green shoots on his list of reasons to feel optimistic is the fact that Portfolio magazine has shut down. Put me down as unconvinced.
