Corporate balance-sheet adjustment: New stylised facts and their relevance for the Eurozone

By Conrad Vincent: It is an article of faith that US companies have more than $2 trillion of cash on their balance sheets, which they would splurge on hiring and capital expenditure (and foolish M&A transactions) the moment the regulatory and tax framework in the US was "enabling", whatever that means. How much of this cash is real, and how much is as mythical as Cerberus, the multi headed hound that guards the gates of the underworld?

Originally posted at The Coming Depression blog, The economic implosion of Europe is accelerating. Even while the mainstream media continues to proclaim that the financial crisis in Europe has been “averted”, the economic statistics that are coming out of Europe just continue to get worse.

Rortybomb submits: I just wrote a short paper titled Dramatic Job Revisions Bust Structural Unemployment Myths (pdf). Here is the abridged version: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” – John Maynard Keynes

"Obesity is an almost inevitable consequence of living with our cultural norms, our history of agricultural production and subsidies, our long-standing socioeconomic inequalities, and the impact of technology on our behavior and bodies," writes Marc Ambinder in a terrific Atlantic

TCF Financial Corporation (TCB) Reposition of Balance Sheet Call March 13, 2012 11:00 AM ET Executives Jason Korstange – Director William Cooper – Chairman & CEO Mike Jones – CFO & EVP Tom Jasper – EVP, Funding – Operations and Finance Craig Dahl – Chairman – TCF Inventory Finance Analysts Jon Arfstrom – RBC Capital Markets

Cullen Roche submits: In a recent story I pointed out that Richard Koo said it was not significant that the USA has been faster to respond to the current balance sheet recession. Now, he was primarily referring to the ineffectiveness of monetary policy during a balance sheet recession and the fact that it doesn’t matter how quickly you cut rates or implement QE during this sort of recession. I largely agree with these comments.