Cloudy Crystal Ball To get some historical perspective on today’s financial crisis — and possibly divine some hint of where things go from here — I’ve been skimming “This Time is Different: 8 Centuries of Financial Folly.” The co-authors, Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, are highly pedigreed economics professors; almost half of their exhaustively researched,...Read More
Strategic Defaults Driving Retail Sales? A penny saved is a penny earned. –Benjamin Franklin, circa 1780 A penny defaulted on is a penny earned. –Benjamin Franklin, 2010?? No, I have no way of knowing whether a modern-day Benjamin Franklin would have uttered the second quote. In fact, he didn’t even say the first one (that...Read More
Betting On Its Own Lawsuit?? Best line (to date) about the SEC’s fraud case against Goldman Sachs is this nugget from “The Weekend Update” segment on Saturday Night Live: Goldman Sachs was accused Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission of fraudulently selling mortgage-backed securities to its customers. If convicted, the firm stands to make...Read More
