“What Would TR Do?” “It’s too soon to tell.” –Mao Tse Tung’s response, when asked (in 1947) about the consequences of the French Revolution. Just as perspective is needed to appreciate signal historical events, so, too, is distance required to assess great individuals. More than a century after Teddy Roosevelt successfully challenged the monopolists and concentrated financial...Read More
Adding Fuel to the Fire — Then Buying Fire Insurance According to Margin Call — the most recent movie to tackle the Wall Street-authored financial bust — the honchos running the nation’s biggest investment banks realized too late that the market for mortgage-backed securities was going to collapse. So, literally overnight, they did a 180, dumping their...Read More
More Hot Air From the White House Is the White House finally getting serious about helping underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages? Not judging by the bond market. Yesterday, mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jumped in price. Given how refinancing affects these bonds — borrowers who re-finance pay off their expensive loans, reducing investors’ return —...Read More
“Distribute?!?” How About, “Palm Off?” Dis-tri-bute: 1 : to divide among several or many : apportion2 a : to spread out so as to cover something: scatter; b : to give out or deliver especially to members of a group. –Merriam-Webster dictionary According to The New York Times, as early as 2006, “company email messages...Read More
Goldman Sachs: Preying on its Clients (& Taxpayers, too) [Note to Readers: No, this hasn’t become the “anti-Goldman Sachs rant” blog. It’s just that: a) the firm’s conduct is/was so outrageous; b) the economic harm it caused so far-reaching; and c) authorities’ response to the firm’s conduct so feeble (if you can call it that)....Read More
