I did not start blogging in order to start a media career, but sometimes the media finds its way to my door.? I received a call today from a reporter for one of the major television networks, and after talking a while, she asked me, “What big stories aren’t being told?? Some of my best stories some from asking this question.”? I told her I needed to think, and would e-mail her back on the topic.? I decided I would review my last month of posts to look for out-of-consensus ideas, and I came up with these:
- China is overstimulating businesses through loans and they are buying up commodities that they don’t need now, leading to a possible correction in commodity prices.
- Western European banks are in trouble because of loans to Eastern European nations denominated in Euros.? With the rise in the Euro, defaults are likely.
- Water shortages in China and India.
- Most entities that the US Government has bailed out will have stocks that are zero eventually — GM, Chrysler, AIG, and maybe Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.? For an opposing opinion on the GSEs, read the intelligent John Hempton at Bronte Capital.
- With dud residential mortgage loans, modifications don’t work well unless there is a forgiveness of some of the principal.
- The foreign funding base of the US is getting shorter in maturity — could this be a sign of trouble?? Is there a lack of confidence?
- If we marked the value of commercial real estate loans to market for banks, using data from the CMBS market, some banks would be insolvent.
That’s all for me, or now.? Now, I don’t watch television, listen to radio much, and I don’t subscribe to anything aside from the WSJ.? I don’t see everything.? That is why I am asking my clever readers to answer the question that the reporter asked me — what significant economic stories aren’t being told?? These can be small issues as well as big issues.? Please let me know in the comments below.? Thanks.
Mexico is collapsing- does anyone care?
Many of our cities and towns are probably on the edge of insolvency- what is the “new normal” for municipal services going to look like?
Scott from Oregon. you have picked up the most avoided story of all-
Scott said-
Misrepresenting what you sell is FRAUD. WHERE ARE ALL the indictments?
Bags of trash with triple A ratings? That?s fraud.
Expensive, whwite collar fraud that resulted in common folk losing their life savings?
Where are all the indictments?????
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch
I think the big untold story is the fact that monopolies have taken over and that to get back to the American dream we need to engage in some trust-busting while at the same time reconciling the need to compete with huge (sometimes nationalized) foreign competitors.