We're Out of the Woods

I think everything is fine now: U.S. economy shows new signs of life. Maybe everyone is spending their bonus money on TVs and fridges. We're all good. Phew, that was quick. I guess CNBC has been right all along. If we just stay bullish for long enough, everything will work it's way out.

(Just be sure and ignore anything that points to downward revisions in any data and don't read in to what exactly is making up the numbers. Just be greatly that they've got a '+' in front of them.)

First Pass

Ratings shmatings. Do credit ratings mean anything anymore? [Clusterstock]
US budget deficit balloons [Reuters]
Goldman profiting from AIG's collapse [Zero Hedge]
GS conference call regarding relationship with AIG [WSJ]
Surprising retail numbers in Canada [Report on Business]
Next year, I'm going to get Barclays to do my taxes [Guardian UK]
Just in case your Friday is going too well, read this [Daily Reckoning]
Give Bernanke a run for his money [San Francisco Fed]

First Pass

Quashing deflation fears in Canada [Report on Business]
The effects of quantitative easing in the US [Bloomberg]
Is this what brought LEH down? [Bloomberg]
Not according to this interview [Portfolio.com]
Changing status of the USD [ftalphaville]

It's not looking good for Geithner:


This is a graph from Intrade showing the probability that he will be out of job by by June 2009.