Context of 'January 22, 2009: Roubini, Parisi-Capone Estimate US Losses of $3.6 Trillion in Loans and Securities'

The three Republican senators who co-sponsored the recently passed Detainee Treatment Act prohibiting torture (see December 15, 2005) criticize President Bush for his signing statement indicating that he would not follow the law if he sees fit (see December 30, 2005). Senators John McCain (R-AZ), the primary sponsor of the bill, and John Warner (R-VA) issue a statement rejecting Bush’s signing statement. “We believe the president understands Congress’s intent in passing, by very large majorities, legislation governing the treatment of detainees,” the senators write. “The Congress declined when asked by administration officials to include a presidential waiver of the restrictions included in our legislation. Our committee intends through strict oversight to monitor the administration’s implementation of the new law.” The third co-sponsor, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), says he agrees with the letter, “and would go a little bit further.” Graham says: “I do not believe that any political figure in the country has the ability to set aside any… law of armed conflict that we have adopted or treaties that we have ratified. If we go down that road, it will cause great problems for our troops in future conflicts because [nothing] is to prevent other nations’ leaders from doing the same.” The White House refuses to respond to the senators’ comments. Law professor David Golove, a specialist in executive power issues, says the senators’ statements “mean that the battle lines are drawn” for an escalating fight over the balance of power between the two branches of government. “The president is pointing to his commander in chief power, claiming that it somehow gives him the power to dispense with the law when he’s conducting war,” Golove says. “The senators are saying: ‘Wait a minute, we’ve gone over this. This is a law Congress has passed by very large margins, and you are compelled and bound to comply with it.’” Elisa Massimino of Human Rights First says the senators’ statements should warn military and CIA interrogators that they could be subject to prosecution if they torture or abuse a detainee, regardless of Bush’s signing statement. “That power [to override the law] was explicitly sought by the White House, and it was considered and rejected by the Congress,” she says. “And any US official who relies on legal advice from a government lawyer saying there is a presidential override of a law passed by Congress does so at their peril. Cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment is illegal.” Golove notes that it is highly unlikely that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would prosecute anyone for performing actions Bush had authorized. [Boston Globe, 1/5/2006; Savage, 2007, pp. 225-226]

Entity Tags: David Golove, Alberto R. Gonzales, George W. Bush, John W. Warner, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Elisa Massimino

Timeline Tags: Torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere

NYU Economics Professor Nouriel Roubini tells Bloomberg News that, following the $350 billion injection by the Bush Administration, President Barack Obama will have to use as much as $1 trillion of taxpayer funds to shore up capitalization of the banking sector. “The problems of Citi, Bank of America and others suggest the system is bankrupt,” Roubini said. “In Europe, it’s the same thing.” Roubini also predicts that oil prices will continue to trade between $30 to $40 a barrel all year. Regarding commodities, Roubini said, “I see commodities falling overall another 15-20%. This outlook for commodity prices is beneficial for oil importers, it’s going to imply that economic recovery might occur faster, but from the point of view of oil exporters, this will be very negative.” [Street Insider.com, 1/20/2009; Bloomberg, 1/20/2009]

Entity Tags: Barack Obama, Citibank, Nouriel Roubini, Bank of America

Timeline Tags: Global Economic Collapse

New York University economist Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini and Western Europe Finance and Banking analyst Elisa Parisi-Capone of RGE Monitor release new estimates for expected loan losses and writedowns on US originated securitizations:
Loan losses on a total of $12.37 trillion unsecuritized loans are expected to reach $1.6 trillion. Of these, US banks and brokers are expected to incur $1.1 trillion.
Mark-to-market writedowns based on derivatives prices and cash bond indices on a further $10.84 trillion in securities reached $1.92 trillion. According to flow-of-funds data, about 40% of these securities (and losses) are foreign-held. US banks and broker dealers are assumed to incur a share of 30-35%, or $600-700 billion in securities writedowns.
US-originated assets’ total loan losses and securities writedowns are expected to reach about $3.6 trillion. The US banking sector is exposed to half of this figure, or about $1.8 trillion (i.e. $1.1 trillion loan losses + $700bn writedowns).
As of the third quarter of 2008, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured banks’ capitalization is $1.3 trillion; as of the same period, investment banks had $110bn in equity capital. Roubini and Parisi-Capone say that past recapitalization through the first release of the TARP funds for $230bn, and private capital of $200bn leaves the US banking system very nearly insolvent, should loss estimates materialize.
In order to restore safe lending, additional private and/or public capital of approximately $1 to 1.4 trillion is needed, thus calling for a comprehensive solution along the lines of a “bad bank” proposed by policymakers, or an outright restructuring through a new resolution trust corporation (RTC).
In September 2008, Roubini proposed a solution for the banking crisis that also addresses the root causes of the financial turmoil in the housing and the household sectors. The HOME (Home Owners’ Mortgage Enterprise) program combines an RTC to deal with toxic assets, a homeowners loan corporation to reduce homeowners’ debt, and a reconstruction finance corporation to recapitalize viable banks.
They concluded that total financial system losses will likely hit $3.6 trillion, half of which, according to Roubini, “will be borne by US firms,” and that the losses will overwhelm the US financial system which, in the third quarter of 2008, had a capitalization of $1.3 trillion in commercial banks and $110 billion in investment banks. [Bloomberg, 1/20/2009; AFP Reporter, 1/22/2009] Since September 7, 2006, Dr. Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, has been known as “Dr. Doom” after telling an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund that an economic crisis was brewing in the coming months and years. He warned that the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession, and laid out a bleak sequence of events: homeowners defaulting on mortgages, trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities unraveling worldwide and the global financial system shuddering to a halt. These developments, he said, could cripple or destroy hedge funds, investment banks and other major financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [New York Times Magazine, 8/15/2008]

Entity Tags: Nouriel Roubini, Elisa Parisi-Capone, RGE Monitor

Timeline Tags: Global Economic Collapse

According to economists and other finance experts, most of the major US banks are broke, awash in losses from bad bets that overwhelm the banks’ assets. [Link TV, 2/10/2009; Financial Times, 2/10/2009] None of the experts focus on individual banks, and there are exceptions among the 50 largest banks in the country. Consumers and businesses do not need to fret about their federally insured deposits, and even banks that are technically insolvent can continue operating, and could recover their financial health once the economy improves. Until there is a cure for banks’ bad assets, the credit crisis that is dragging down the economy will linger, since banks cannot resume the lending needed to restart commerce.
Suggested Response - Economists and experts say that the answer is a larger, more direct government role than the recently-unveiled Treasury Department plan. The Obama-Geithner plan leans heavily on sketchy public-private investment funding to buy up the banks’ troubled mortgage-backed securities. Experts say that the government needs to delve in, weed out the weakest banks, inject capital into surviving banks and sell off bad assets. “The historical record shows that you have to do it eventually,” said Adam Posen, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Putting it off only brings more troubles and higher costs in the long run.” The Obama administration’s recovery plan could help spur a timely economic spurt, and the value of the banks’ assets could begin to rise. Absent that, the prescription would not be easy or cheap. Estimates of the capital injection needed range from $1 trillion and beyond. By contrast, the commitment of taxpayer money is the $350 billion remaining in the financial bailout approved by Congress last fall.
Pessimism - In a new report Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University, estimates that total losses on loans by American financial firms and the fall in the market value of the assets they hold will reach $3.6 trillion, up from his previous estimate of $2 trillion. [Global Economic Monitor, 2/10/2009] Of the total, he calculates that American banks face half that risk, or $1.8 trillion, with the rest borne by other financial institutions in the United States and abroad. “The United States banking system is effectively insolvent,” Roubini says. [International Herald Tribune, 2/13/2009]

Entity Tags: Peterson Institute for International Economics, James K. Galbraith, Nouriel Roubini

Timeline Tags: Global Economic Collapse

According to a recent Manpower, Inc. survey, US employers’ plans to hire for the third quarter of 2009 are at a record low, and the jobless will have to wait many months more before finding a job. The agency reported that after they adjusted results for seasonal employment variations, its employment gauge for July through September 2009 was negative. In a statement released to media, Jonas Prising, president of Americas for Manpower, says employers are “treading slowly and watching with guarded optimism, hoping a few quarters of stability will be the precursor to recovery.” The report underlines economists’ predictions that unemployment will continue to climb even if layoffs subside. Recent Labor Department statistics reported a loss of 345,000 US jobs in May. Although less than the job losses recorded in the last eight months, the May 2009 jobless rate surged to its highest level in nearly 26 years. In a repeat of results from the two previous periods, 67 percent of employers anticipated zero change in third quarter 2009, Manpower says. Those who expected to boost their payrolls remained at 15 percent for a second time in a row, while those projecting additional job cuts fell to 13-14 percent. “While the numbers may not be as optimistic as we would like, it is positive to see no further deterioration,” says Jeffrey Joerres, Manpower’s chairman and chief executive officer. Six of 13 industries employers surveyed estimated better employment conditions than in the second quarter, with gains in leisure, hospitality, wholesale, and retail trades, while those in construction stated they would add staff for the first time in a year. The biggest hiring corrosion occurred in education, health services, and at government agencies. In three of four regions, the net employment gauge measured negative, and was zero in the Northeast. The measurement improved in the South, dropped in the West, and was little changed in the Northeast and Midwest. Net employment gauge figures are tallied by subtracting the percentage of employers that predict an employment decrease from those that foresee an increase. Manpower’s global outlook survey demonstrated that the net employment gauge for third quarter 2009 improved in 12 countries from the previous three months. Plans for hiring were strongest in India, Norway, and Poland. The Manpower Inc. survey is a quarterly measurement with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.49 percentage point in the US. The employment agency interviewed over 28,000 US employers for its national outlook and surveyed 70,000 companies for its third quarter global measurement. Manpower Inc. is billed as the largest temporary workers employment agency in the world. [Bloomberg, 6/9/2009]

Entity Tags: US Department of Labor, Jonas Prising, Jeffrey Joerres, Manpower Inc.

Timeline Tags: Global Economic Collapse

The World Bank predicts a 2.9 percent contraction in the global economy and adds that unemployment and poverty will continue to rise in developing nations in 2009. The revised previous estimate of a 1.7 percent decline causes a slide in US and European stocks and commodities. Three months ago, the World Bank issued a new estimate of 2 percent in 2010. Although the S&P 500 remains up 33 percent from its 12-year low in March, since June 12, the index has fallen 5.1 percent. Last week, the S&P 500 lost 2.6 percent, as a turndown in crude oil wounded fuel producers and Standard & Poor’s rating agency downgraded 18 banks’ credit ratings. Speaking in Paris today, economics professor Nouriel Roubini—who predicted the current financial crisis as early as 2006—says the global economy could suffer another slump due to higher oil prices and increasing budget deficits. “I see the worry of a double whammy” because of energy costs and fiscal burdens, thus increasing the risk of a setback in the economic recovery. He says that oil might rise to $100 a barrel. The increase in the value of the dollar blunted the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment, and sent copper, gasoline and oil prices lower. Amid the resignations of two more board members, bringing the total of departing directors to seven since April, Bank of America stock falls 6.1 percent to $12.41, the bank’s steepest intraday decline since May 15. It is expected that at the end of their two-day meeting on June 24, Federal Reserve officials might announce that the US is showing signs of surfacing from the worst recession in 50 years, although, after their last meeting in April, they announced that the economy would “remain weak for a time.” It is anticipated that central bankers will keep the benchmark interest rate in the range of zero to 0.25 percent. [Bloomberg, 6/22/2009]

Entity Tags: World Bank, Bank of America, Nouriel Roubini, US Federal Reserve, Standard & Poor’s

Timeline Tags: Global Economic Collapse

On his website “Roubini Global Economics (RGE) Monitor,” New York University economics professor Nouriel Roubini interprets June’s unemployment report as a strong indication that any economic recovery indicators are “alleged green shoots” that are “mostly yellow weeds that may eventually turn into brown manure.” Known as “Dr. Doom” for his prescient 2006 speech to the International Monetary Fund warning fellow economists that the housing bubble would eventually lead to major global recession, Roubini analyzed June’s loss of 460,000 jobs as a strong indication that conditions in the labor market remain “extremely weak.” He also predicts that unemployment could reach 10 percent by the end of summer and that, by the end of 2009, the jobless rate “may well be at 10.5 if not 11 percent.” Roubini cites numerous reasons that an economic recovery, stumped by record high joblessness, is not likely to occur until unemployment falls below 8.5 percent in late 2013.
Roubini June 2009 Jobs Report Analysis -
Details of the unemployment report are worse than reported since, not only are there presently large job losses, but firms are inducing workers to reduce their hours and their hourly wages. According to Roubini, when observing the effect of the labor market on labor income, include three important elements in the total value of labor income—jobs, hours, and average hourly wages. Roubini says all three elements are currently falling, making their effects on labor income much more significant than job losses alone.
Job losses continue to exceed those in the last two recessions, and the unemployment rate has been rising steadily in the current cycle.
Rising unemployment will raise default on consumer loans and further pressure bank balance sheets.
Without home equity or easy credit, ongoing job losses and slower income growth will also keep up the pressure on consumer spending.
Large unemployment, underutilization of labor, and sharp slowdown in wages will add to deflationary pressures in the coming quarters.
Bank losses and tight lending are impacting households who already face wealth losses from housing and equity markets.
Impact of financial sector problems on the real economy are intensifying job losses and leading to lower work hours and wage growth. This puts further pressure on consumer spending while raising mortgage, credit card, and other debt defaults (the unemployment rate is highly correlated with delinquencies on credit cards and auto loans), also putting additional pressure on financial and corporate sector balance sheets.
US labor market aspects are worsening. Factor discouraged and partially-employed workers into jobless statistics, and the true and current unemployment rate is above 16 percent.
Temporary jobs are falling sharply, also an indicator that labor market conditions are becoming worse.
The average unemployment duration is at an all-time high, indicating that people are not only losing jobs, they’re finding it much more difficult to find new jobs.
Based on the birth/death model, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) continues to add approximately 150,000 to 200,000 jobs, distorting downward the number of job losses. However, based on the initial claims for unemployment benefits, job losses are closer to 600,000 per month rather than officially reported figures such as the 467,000 in the June report.
Should unemployment rates peak at or around 11 percent in 2010, expected bank loans and securities losses will be much higher than estimated in recent stress tests.
While there was a retail sales boost and a boost in real consumer spending during January and February 2009, the numbers from April, May, and now June remain extremely weak in real terms.
The significant increase in real personal income in April and May occurred only because of tax rebates and unemployment benefits.
There was a sharp fall in real personal spending in April, with only a marginal increase in May, suggesting that, just as in 2008, most tax rebates were saved rather than spent. In 2008, people expected the tax rebate to stimulate consumption through September, yet the personal spending increase in April, May, and June 2008 fizzled out by July.
Expect further significant reduction in consumer spending in the fall after the effects of the tax rebates fade since, according to Roubini, 2009 households are much more worried about jobs, income, credit cards, and mortgages than they are in personal consumption and spending. Roubini suggests that only approximately 20 cents on the dollar—rather than the 30 cents of 2008—is going to be spent in the fall of 2009.
By the end of 2010 and in 2011, large budgets and their monetization will eventually increase expected inflation, leading to a further increase in 10-year treasuries, long-term government bond yields, and mortgage and private-market rates. Combined with higher oil prices partly driven to increase by the treasuries, bonds, mortgage, and private market wall of liquidity, as opposed to fundamentals alone, this “could produce a double whammy that could push the economy into a double-dip or W-shaped recession by late 2010 or 2011, so the outlook ahead for the US and global economy remains extremely weak.”
The unemployment rate is already over 10 percent in approximately 13 states—and steadily rising. The ISM Employment Index for manufacturing and non-manufacturing has been contracting at a slower pace in recent months. Manpower Survey shows most employers plan to hold head count steady in the third quarter of 2009 relative to the second quarter of 2009. Online job vacancies fell in June, but have shown some improvement since March. JOLTS: The job openings level in April was at its lowest point since the series began in 2001. The hiring and job openings rates were unchanged and remained low (see June 9, 2009).
Nobel Laureate Agrees - Economist Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel laureate, comments: “Workers at any one company can help save their jobs by accepting lower wages and helping make the company more competitive. But when employers across the economy cut wages at the same time, the result is higher unemployment and lower wages in the economy. This will keep pressure on paying off debt and on consumer spending and the real economy.” [RGE Monitor, 7/2/2009]

Entity Tags: US Department of Labor, Paul Krugman, Nouriel Roubini, International Monetary Fund, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Timeline Tags: Global Economic Collapse