The IMF finally announced it's Latvia "bailout" plan on Friday. The plan involves lending about €1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) to Latvia to stabilise the currency and financial support while the government implements its economic adjustment plan. The loan, which will be in the form of a 27-month stand-by arrangement, is still subject to final approval by the IMF's Executive Board but is likely to be discussed before the end of this year under the Fund's fast-track emergency financing procedures, and it is not anticipated that there will be any last minute hitches (although I do imagine some eyebrow raising over the decision to support the continuation of the Lat peg). The Latvian government admits that some of the IMF economists involved in the negotiations advocated a devaluation of the lat as a way of ammeliorating the ...

U.S. stocks futures fell this morning despite yesterday’s barnstormer rally and heavy hints of a further rate cut by the Fed. “S&P 500 futures dropped 21 points to 917.70 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 32.5 points to 1,275.50. Dow industrial futures dropped 200 points to 8,889.00,” according to MarketWatch.

– Yesterday, the Dow surged 11%. It was the second-largest gain in the the history of the index (all 112 years of it). Before you pop the champagne corks, it’s worth remembering that despite yesterday’s show-off surge Dow indsutrials are still 36% off their October 2007 record close. That puts U.S. blue chips deep in bear territory.

– While analysts desperately pour over their charts and numbers in search for a bottom in stocks, economists are on the lookout for a turnaround in the U.S.

...

From the Peterson Institute comes the "Real Time Economics Watch". The latest posts are on how each crisis is different and yet the same [0], by Ted Truman, and the US/Japan parallels (or lack thereof) [1], authored by Adam Posen.

(The Peterson Institute doesn't call it a weblog, but it seems like one...)