According to the Commerce Department, new home construction fell by almost 6% in February. Not surprising though given that the country was virtually snowed out. But what is important to note is that, building permits, which really has no linkage to bad weather, fell by as much as 1.6%.

Importantly, the total number of homes under construction fell to 492,000, the lowest on records since 1970. So much for recovery. Though given the inventory glut, this might not be a bad ploy. Problem though is that with the house buyers' credit programme about to end soon, more pain is in the offing. 
 
 
Bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas's exhaustive 2,200-page report on the now collapsed Lehman Brothers made some stunning observations. Apparently Lehman used an accounting trick known as Repo 15 to show a balance sheet that was much healthier than it actually was. This particualar practice allowed Lehman to sell packages of mortgages, Treasury bonds, Eurobonds, even Canadian government instruments, on a temporary basis at the end of an accounting quarter, with an obligation to buy them back a few weeks later. The deals, made $50bn in debt vanish from the balance sheet. Readers would do well remember that under Geithner, the NY Fed ran three ‘stress tests’ on Lehman all of which failed. Finally, they were allowed to run their own ‘stress test’ and in that they passed. And, nothing was done about it till Lehman fell under the weight of its own shenanigans. Surprised?

According to Valukas, these moves are ‘inherently improper’. Not surprisingly, Lehman also sacked the whistle blower earlier, in the name of downsizing.
 
 
My article on India's Q3 GDP, as published by Asia Times:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LC03Df01.html
 
 
My views on the budget has been published by Financial Times today. The link is as follows:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/84702992-25e4-11df-b2fc-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=a6dfcf08-9c79-11da-8762-0000779e2340.html