The Wall Street Journal‘s Nat Worden makes the obvious point—one missed by some, including, apparently, lots of investors—that any potential newspaper recovery depends on print advertising not continuing to decline at 25 percent-plus clips. “Newspaper publishers are running out of costs to cut, and they need to show some real ad-revenue gains soon.”
— David Leonhardt makes a good point that the night is always darkest before the dawn as far as the economy goes. But watch him struggle, self-consciously, to figure out how we dig out of this mess and tell me if you’d bet on black.
— And if you’re still inclined to make that bet, read Nouriel Roubini’s “mother of all carry trades” column in the Financial Times. Basically, the Fed’s money printing is pushing down the dollar, allowing people to borrow “at negative 20 per cent rates to invest on a highly leveraged basis on a mass of risky global assets that are rising in price due to excess liquidity and a massive carry trade.” Inevitably, this will crash, he says, in the “biggest co-ordinated asset bust ever.” For more on this, read Felix Salmon on “the roots of the coming crash.”
Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.