Month February 2008

Bi-polar financial markets

There is a stunning ability for the equity markets to shake off bad news after bad news. Meanwhile the underlying credit markets continue to deteriorate. Both cannot be correct. This divergence will end, we just do not know when. The…

California budgets getting crunched

In a scene likely to be played out in states and municipalities nationwide, things are starting to implode in California at the state level, the county level, and the city level. The state has ordered mandatory, major cutbacks, with more…

Dubious exit poll practices

Exit polls too often only ask Republicans about their religion affiliation and only ask Democrats about union membership. Do TV ratings depend on telling a meta-story of an America divided into two completely separate cultures or something? Why do they…