Bianco and El-Erian on CNBC this morning

Earlier this morning Jim Bianco was on CNBC with Mohamed El-Erian discussing the government’s various bailout plans.

TIPS Strong Q1 2009 Returns

TIPS generated their best quarterly returns since 1997. Two analysts discuss TIPS performance and outlook on Bloomberg.

The Economist: A Video on London's G20 protests

Bill Gross: Job Cuts Will Get Worse Before They Improve

Bond guru Bill Gross sees the unemployment rate jumping to double digits before it improves, and even then the economy will evolve into something we haven't seen before. "Perhaps the more staggering number, in my opinion, is the five million jobs lost over the last 15 months," Gross told CNBC. "That's a lot of jobs, and a lot of jobs to recoup. Obama's goal, of course, is three and a half million jobs, either regained or saved. We've got a long way to go."

PIMCO's founder and former chief executive acknowledged that March job losses were in line with expectations. And he says the situtation will likely get worse before it gets better.

"We're going to have a positive quarter at some point in the second half," he predicted. "Those that would look for bottoms in the economy or the stock market, though, I think are really focusing on the wrong thing, because that implies that we're going to return to what is a normal stasis. We think that's incorrect. We think that unemployment will go to 10 percent before it returns to 8."

Signs of Hope in Housing? Not in the Case-Shiller Data

This BusinessWeek video discusses how low prices and tax breaks might be luring buyers into ravaged housing markets like Las Vegas and the Florida coast. Most of the signs of life are in the foreclosure market, but it might be the beginning of the end of the housing downturn as real estate inventory levels appear to be improving slightly.

However, the recently released Case-Shiller housing data showed a continued weakness in housing nationwide. The Case-Shiller data shows a continued acceleration to the downside at a record pace. The 10 and 20 city index show declines from their peak at 30% and the bubble cities with declines of 40% or more - with Phoenix having the largest percentage drop of nearly 50%.

The Fed and the Macro-Economy

(Reuters, April 4). Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses the recent actions of the Federal Reserve, IMF, and the U.S. economy.

Has the market hit bottom?

The U.S. stock markets have recorded their best four week returns since 1933. Did the market hit bottom? Some market pundits are saying that it's possible government intervention is shortening the downturn.

Pat Dorsey: Is Rally for Real? The Positives and Negatives

This has been quite a stock market rally the past month. The Dow is up more than 21% and the Russell 2000 is up almost 27% the past four weeks. Is the rally for real? Pat Dorsey of Morningstar talks about the positives and negatives.