Looking for a “Containment Dome” . . . . for Wall Street See if this sounds familiar: First came the explosion and melt-down. Next came the after-effects: millions of innocent victims, sickened and poisoned by the fast-spreading pollution. Finally, tardy and tepid, came the containment and clean-up efforts — entrusted, incredibly, to the same despoilers...Read More
Earthquake on Wall Street You break it, you own it. –Thomas L. Friedman, “The Pottery Barn Rule” Supposedly coined by Friedman in a 2003 Op-Ed piece, the “it” he was referring to at the time was Iraq. His warning: if the U.S. goes into Iraq and bungles it — it will bear responsibility for the...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
Fascinating Juxtaposition The two photos above, from today’s New York Times, present a fascinating juxtaposition. The photo on the left shows FDR signing legislation — known as The Glass-Steagall Act — separating the nation’s investment banks from its commercial banks. It was the latter that held ordinary Americans’ savings deposits, and it was the former’s...Read More
TARP Mystery . . . Solved! OK, it’s taken me almost a year to puzzle out, but I think I’ve finally got it: Superficially, the hundreds of billions in TARP money handed over to the financial sector’s worst actors only looks like a stupendous reward for failure — and not a little like ransom money,...Read More
Wall Street Who-Dunnit: No One?? Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. –John F. Kennedy Hurricane Katrina was an act of nature. The economy’s Wall Street-triggered financial collapse is not. If and when anyone is actually held accountable for that, you can expect to hear variants (combinations?) of the following defenses. (Im)plausible...Read More
