News from around the world:
- Bernie Madoff cons folks like Nomura and BNP Paribas (allegedly) and many more, of $50 billion. That’s a lot for a Ponzi scheme. How they got $50 bn without anyone finding out is beyond me, but I have a feeling he hasn’t got much of it.
- GM is hiring bankruptcy lawyers, after the Senate rejected the auto bailout. That may be a tactic to push people to do something fast.
- AIG loses $10 billion but pays a heck of lot of bonuses. And gets away with it. But after Citi, I don’t see why not.
- Two more banks (One, Two) fail on Friday, taking the count to 25.
- Bank of America cuts 35,000 jobs. The US shows worst unemployment data (claims of 573,000) for a while now – 4 week moving averages are worst since 1982.
And yet, the Dow was up for the week, and looked strong on Friday after opening lower.
These markets don’t want to go down. Just one piece of good news might get everyone excited.
