by Calculated Risk on 11/25/2010 09:01:00 PM

From Michael Pettis on Europe: Chinese inflation and European defaults

Its official – Spain and Portugal will need to be bailed out soon. How do I know? In one of my favorite TV shows, Yes Minister, the all-knowing civil servant Sir Humphrey explains to cabinet minister Jim Hacker that you can never be certain that something will happen until the government denies it.

And Portugal and Spain have just rejected the possibility of a bailout (a joke with a lot of truth).

Pettis offers a few pessimistic predictions including:

Greece will be forced to default and restructure its debt, and the restructuring will come with a significant amount of debt forgiveness. The idea that it can grow its way out of the current debt burden is a fantasy.

And ...

Greece will not be the only defaulter. Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and much of Eastern Europe will also face severe financial distress and possible default.

Best wishes to all.

by Calculated Risk on 11/25/2010 03:15:00 PM

First, a great overview from Raphael Minder at the NY Times: A Spanish Bailout Would Test Europe’s Strained Finances

[A]ny bailout of Spain — with an economy twice the size of [Greece, Ireland and Portugal] combined — could severely stress the ability of Europe’s stronger countries to help the financially weaker ones, and spell deep trouble for the euro, Europe’s common currency.
...
The looming question is whether Spanish banks are really as healthy as the government and the banks say they are. ... Last July, Spanish banks emerged relatively unscathed from stress tests carried out across Europe ... But the credibility of the stress tests has since been undermined by the collapse of Irish banks.

There is much more in the article.

And from the WSJ: EU Hopes to Double Bailout Fund. Concerns about Spain is the reason for doubling the fund.

by Calculated Risk on 11/25/2010 09:15:00 AM

A few housekeeping notes for a holiday ...

• Every weekend I post a weekly schedule of economic data for the coming week. The current schedule can be accessed in the menu bar above: "Weekly Schedule".

• Receive blog posts via email. Sign up here for free (No subscription information will be sold or otherwise provided to third parties).

• Follow on Twitter.

• Graph Galleries are now active. You can access the galleries by clicking on a graph, or use "Graph Galleries" in the menu bar above.

The galleries are graphs grouped by category:
1) Employment,
2) New Home sales,
3) Existing home sales,
4) Home prices,
5) Housing (like starts and homeownership rate)
6) Mortgage Delinquency
7) Transportation
8) Manufacturing
9) GDP
10) Commercial Real Estate (CRE)
11) Retail
12) Trade
13) Employment Participation Rate (an analysis)
14) Inflation (CPI)

Two examples:

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph is based on data from MBA's National Delinquency Survey (NDS)and shows the percent of loans delinquent by days past due.

If you click on the graph, the link will take you to the same graph in the "delinquency" gallery.

The title for the graph "MBA Q3 Delinquency Data, Nov 18, 2010" is a link to the related blog post - and the date is when the graph was posted.

Note the "print" link at the bottom. That will display the full size image (The graphs are free to use on websites or for presentations. All I ask is that online sites link to my site, http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/, and printed presentations credit www.calculatedriskblog.com.)

And another example from the existing home sales report this week.

Clicking on the graph will take you to the "existing home" gallery. There are seven related graphs in the gallery (Existing home sales, inventory, months-of-supply, etc). You can click on the thumbnails at the bottom to view each graph.

Enjoy!

And on Europe:

• Ireland 10-year yield is over 9%

• Spanish 10-year bond yields have hit a record 5.2%.

• Portugal 10-year yield is at 7%.

Thanks to all for reading. Have a great Thanksgiving!

by Calculated Risk on 11/24/2010 10:24:00 PM

A little holiday music ...

by Calculated Risk on 11/24/2010 07:15:00 PM

Earlier post: New Home Sales decline in October

From the American Trucking Association: ATA Truck Tonnage Index Rose 0.8 Percent in October

The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.8 percent in October after increasing a revised 1.8 percent in September. The latest gain put the SA index at 109.7 (2000=100) in October from 108.9 in September.
...
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said that truck tonnage changes over the last couple months shows there are some bright spots in the U.S. economy. “October tonnage levels were at the highest level in three months, even after accounting for typical seasonal shipping patterns. These gains fit with reports out of both the manufacturing and retail sectors and show there is a little bit of life in this economic recovery."

Click on map for larger image.

This graph from the ATA shows the Truck Tonnage Index since Jan 2006.

The line is added to show the index has been mostly moving sideways this year.