A TED Spread Quandry

Bud in Virginia wants to know:

The TED spread is (thankfully) heading below [one], but I observe that both LIBOR and 3-month Treasuries are VERY low -- does this dilute the good TED Spread news?

For those of you just joining us, I'll put some definitions at the very end of the post; if the above question makes sense already, forge ahead.

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-- Alan Cordova

2:23 PM ET | permalink

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Mea Culpa

I'd like to correct a post I made yesterday on short-selling stocks.

A listener wrote in to ask what a person who loans a stock to short seller has to gain? Short selling can seem a bit counterintuitive but I always thought I understood it. When I answered the question yesterday, this is what I wrote:

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-- Daniel Costello

1:25 PM ET | permalink

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Meet You In The Middle

After the Wednesday podcast, listener TrevorL took exception to economist Anita McGahan's definition of disintermediation. McGahan has written back. Both responses after the jump.

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-- Laura Conaway

11:48 AM ET | permalink

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Why Is The Dollar Climbing?

Jesse Zink of South Africa is paid in U.S. dollars, and the dollar has been rising pretty steeply compared to the South African rand. He wants to know why:

It seems that since the real crisis in the financial markets began last fall, the dollar has only strengthened against the rand and I've had more money to spend. It happened rapidly and was notable, at least 20 percent. I have no complaints about the extra rand in my wallet, but how come the dollar didn't weaken as virtually every other indicator did?

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-- Daniel Costello

11:17 AM ET | permalink

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Deflation Watch: Super Bowl Tickets

Add to the list of suddenly cheaper products one of the most sought-after luxury items: tickets to the Super Bowl.

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-- Alan Cordova

9:15 AM ET | permalink

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Why Not Us? Military Contractors Won't Get Stimulated

I thought EVERYBODY was getting a piece of the financial stimulus. (even us).

Well, according to Congressional Quarterly, defense contractors are not so lucky.

To be sure, some defense companies had sought to obtain weapons funding in the stimulus bill, particularly after the Obama transition team asked military acquisition offices for information on projects that might create jobs, said lobbyists who requested anonymity.

"In December, defense lobbyists went nuts," one said.

But it became clear that weapons projects were not what the Obama team was looking for, they said. And justifying such spending was difficult after the increases of recent years.

...

the Aerospace Industries Association has spent nearly $2 million on ads to convince decision makers that the defense sector plays an important role in the economy. The group is under no illusions that the rate of growth in defense spending since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks can be sustained, but it hopes to limit the cutbacks.

-- Adam Davidson

5:30 AM ET | permalink

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Hear: The News Today, Oh, Boy

The lucky ones at this tech firm got pay cuts.

Listener letter after the jump.

 

A number of listeners have asked us to look at what's happening inside our own industry -- media. Magazines have been shutting down, newspapers are canceling home delivery and furloughing staff, publications are moving online, radio networks are laying off workers. Which is just the half of it, really.

Today on Planet Money:

-- A newspaper carrier says the print edition he delivers is now too light for him to throw it onto porches properly.

-- Economist Anita McGahan, author of How Industries Evolve, studies what's known as punctuated change. She says the line between shifting and dying is not always apparent, at the time. But the first company to figure out what comes next wins.

Continue reading "Hear: The News Today, Oh, Boy" »

-- Laura Conaway

3:49 PM ET | permalink

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Best Podcast Fail

Inspired by the Fail Blog.

 

Congratulations to our friends over at EconTalk who captured the title of the 2008 Weblog Best Podcast Award. Despite our best efforts, Planet Money came in third behind EconTalk and the much loved Harry Podcast Mugglecast. There's always next year.

-- Caitlin Kenney

3:48 PM ET | permalink

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It's All A Game

If all this talk over quantitative easing and split-strike conversions has left you with a headache, surf on over to the Bailout Game for minutes of mindless fun. Let the ax fall on your favorite investment banks, automakers and government-sponsored entities and watch the carnage unfold! (Thanks, Clusterstock!)

-- Alan Cordova

2:59 PM ET | permalink

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Some Problems With Keynes

You've been hearing a lot about John Maynard Keynes, the British economist of the early 20th century who, 63 years after his death, is suddenly the single-most important thinker if you want to understand President-elect Obama's plan to get us out of this economic whole.

We're going to do a lot on Keynes. I'm on Morning Edition this Friday and This American Life over the weekend talking about the man.

I've been reading the masterful biography by Robert Skidelsky. Just get it. It's fun and fascinating even if Keynes were not, suddenly, basically running our country.

And I will give plenty of time on this blog and the podcast and on the radio to Keynes's important ideas, but I have to get some things off my chest: the things about Keynes that absolutely drive me crazy. That make me furious and frustrated and angry.

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-- Adam Davidson

12:51 PM ET | permalink

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