Gross Says Government Stimulus Must Be in Trillions

We watched the interviews at PIMCO on Bloomberg TV.

He may be sincere but there should be little doubt that Bill Gross was 'talking his book.'

Maybe Obama will spike the Jobs Numbers tomorrow to shake loose the money tree. He is a fool if he doesn't because it will not take much to put out a horrific number, especially after the years of pollyanna sand-bagging that had built up under Bush II.


Bloomberg
U.S. Must Spend to Avoid Mini Depression, Bill Gross Says
By Kathleen Hays and Dakin Campbell

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. may slump into a “mini depression” unless policy makers spend trillions of dollars to spur growth.

“This economy needs support from the government, a check from the government in the trillions,” Gross said today in a Bloomberg Television interview from Pimco’s headquarters in Newport Beach, California. “There is a potential catastrophe if the U.S. government continues to focus on billions of dollars.”

Gross manages the $132 billion Total Return Fund, the world’s biggest bond fund. The fund gained 4.8 percent last year and has outperformed 99 percent of its peers over the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average government and corporate bond fund lost 8 percent in 2008, Bloomberg data show.

Pimco is a unit of Munich-based Allianz SE, Europe’s largest insurer.

The Jobs Number for January Could be Quite Bad, Much Worse than Expected

The non-seasonally adjusted number could come in around -3,400,000 jobs.

Luckily for the BLS January is the worst month for actuals, and therefore has the largest seasonality factor.

The 'imaginary jobs' number will not be a significant factor, since January is also the month in which they adjust out many of the imaginary jobs they added in the last six months that are obviously non-existent.

Our standard projections show the headline number coming in about -650,000+ which is pretty severe, but it could be much higher depending on how they apply the seasonality, or lower depending on how much they choose to adjust the prior months and 'smooth the decline.' An outside number could be -900,000.

So, all in all, there may be a large downward adjustment to December which may help to absorb some of the single month impact, but the consenses loss of 540,000 jobs looks optimistic.

Let's see what happens. We are prepared for the worst. We have some confidence that even 'the reformers' will gild the lily a bit to 'inspire confidence.' All statists fudge the numbers because the individual and the truth are servants of the state and the 'greater good.'

Deutsche Bank Posts First Loss Since WW II

Breitbart
Deutsche Bank posts first loss since WWII, rejects state aid
Feb 5 09:12 AM

Germany's biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, on Thursday posted its first annual loss since World War II after a terrible fourth quarter but said it would survive the global meltdown without state aid.

Chairman Josef Ackermann said the bank did not require government assistance and would pull out of the financial crisis on its own.

Deutsche Bank reported a net loss of 3.9 billion euros (5.0 billion dollars) for 2008 after a massive loss of 4.8 billion euros in the fourth quarter alone. For 2007, Deutsche Bank have posted a record profit of 6.5 billion euros....

Ackermann added that he saw no "dramatic" risks in the bank's accounts.

In a statement earlier, he said "operating conditions in the (fourth) quarter were completely unprecedented and exposed some weaknesses in our business model.

He acknowledged being "very disappointed" at the quarterly figures but said that "since the trust and support of our shareholders is critical for us, we recommend a dividend for the year 2008 of 50 cents per share."

...Ackermann said he remained committed to the bank's business model, which is focused on investment banking, a once lucrative field in which Deutsche Bank is one of the global leaders.

The sector has suffered sustained turmoil since mid-2007 when the US subprime or higher risk home loan market collapsed, undercutting the derivative investment instruments which had been linked to it by the banks...

For the full year 2008, Deutsche Bank revised the total value of its assets lower by 7.0 billion euros, more than three times the 2007 write-downs of 2.3 billion euros.

In the fourth quarter alone, asset write-downs amounted to 5.3 billion euros.

New Hampshire HCR 6 Status - Hearing in Committee Tomorrow

HCR6 Session Year 2009

Bill Text Title: Affirming States' Rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

G-Status: HOUSE
House Status: IN COMMITTEE
Senate Status:

Next/Last Comm: HOUSE STATE-FEDERAL RELATIONS AND VETERANS AFFAIRS
Next/Last Hearing: 02/05/2009 at 01:00 PM LOB 203

New Hampshire HCR 6 Text