Earn What You Spend

[via Option ARMageddon]  This is truly an astounding number.  I didn’t know this, but the government updates the total outstanding debt for the United States here every day. 
Option ARMageddon has the graph: 

[via Greg Mankiw]
Christina Romer, current Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, presented this talk today at the Brookings Institute.  Although the adjective ‘Great’ is returning to our lexicon when describing the current crisis - Ms. Romer assures us that no, we’re not in another Great Depression.  The Great Recession, perhaps, but we are a [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the payroll report for February: 651,000 job losses in February, bringing the unemployment rate to 8.1%.  According to the Bureau, the job losses cut across virtually every sector of the economy:
The number of unemployed persons increased by 851,000 to 12.5 million in
February, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.1 [...]

In his 2008 letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett admits to a few costly mistakes and offers key insight on the economy, government bailouts, derivatives, municipal markets and more.  This really is a must-read and quite worth your time. 
Berkshire posted their worst year ever, in part due to a bet on the oil and gas industry during [...]

It’s been nearly a full week since I posted here - yikes!  That is much too long.  I was fortunate enough to spend the last week at the TED Conferences - which was, as always, an unbelievable and inspiring experience. 
What is TED?  The best way to answer this is to spend some time on the [...]

Some downturns only affect certain sectors (technology, for instance).  Others begin in one sector, and slowly creep into others, yet remain concentrated in that first sector. And yet others are broad, across-the-board recessions that leave no corner untouched.  
That’s the kind we are in.   From the WSJ:
“The pace at which this thing has spread geographically and [...]