The Quick Way to Bank Profitability If the roots of today’s financial crisis were economic in nature, the vital signs to monitor would be such financial measures as the stock market, unemployment levels, and interest rates. However, a growing chorus of commentators believe that today’s dysfunctional financial system is ultimately a symptom of a political...Read More
“Houston, We Have a (Political) Problem”One of the very best pieces I’ve read — out of perhaps thousands now — analyzing the ongoing financial melt-down is “The Quiet Coup,” by Simon Johnson. The article appears in the May issue of The Atlantic magazine. Johnson, a former chief economist of The International Monetary Fund, has a...Read More
Can We Afford Wall Street?I’ve got a way to make palatable the $3 trillion (or is it $4 trillion? Or $6 trillion?) injected into Wall Street (so far). Don’t think of it as a bailout, think of it as alimony. Yes, alimony. As in, what you pay to divorce someone — or in Wall Street’s...Read More
Tightening Credit Snares the Healthy, Too Without doubt, credit was extended too freely over the past 15 years, and a rationalization of lending is unavoidable. What is avoidable, however, is taking credit away from people who have the ability to pay their bills. If credit is taken away from what otherwise is an able borrower,...Read More
“Yeah, That Will Work” Department I’ve been on a (very) brief family vacation — Duluth water park and puppy scouting — and returned to lots of mail, mostly business-related and bills. Including one from a large bank where I have had a credit card account — and several other accounts — for almost a decade....Read More
Financial Earthquake Likely toAlter Presidential Reputations[Dear Regular Readers: Sorry for the extended detour into macroeconomics, politics, etc. This blog’s regular focus on Twin Cities real estate — in the words of the public service address accompanying TV interruptions — “will resume shortly . . . Please stand by.”] I certainly don’t believe that history will...Read More
