Saturday, November 21, 2009

By any measure Timmy Franz Geithner is found wanting


Timmy Franz Geithner's testimony before Congress said "....By any measure things have improved... by any measure."

David Rosenberg in Barron's has this to say:

Dave systematically proceeds to show why that's pure, unadulterated bunk.
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To wit: We have lost 6.2 million jobs since then. The unemployment rate is 10.2% now, versus 6.2% the day before Lehman collapsed. Even with the nascent midyear recovery, real gross domestic product is still down 3% since the summer of 2008. Housing starts are down 30%. Auto sales are down 23%. Bank credit has contracted by $500 billion, or 8%. Household net worth is down $7 trillion.

There's more: Home prices are down an average of 10%. Office-vacancy rates are up 3.5 percentage points, to 17.2%. Apartment-vacancy rates are up a percentage point to 11.1%. Consumer confidence is down 11 points. The budget deficit has tripled.

If, Dave says wryly, this is "vastly better off," he shudders to think what "worse off" would look like.
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By any measure, Timmy Geithner is found wanting!

Why is it that only the Chinese that laugh at his incompetence?

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