Refunds at the Casino, Courtesy of Taxpayers [Editor’s Note: Gary Marshall, who passed away yesterday at the age of 81, was best-known for creating such mega-hits as “Mork and Mindy” and “Happy Days” (TV), and for directing films like “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries.” But, my favorite Gary Marshall role was as a supporting...Read More
Lehman’s “Not So Big” $600,000,000,000(!) Balance Sheet “The 2008 financial crisis itself was centered not on big banks but on “shadow banks” like Lehman Brothers that weren’t necessarily that big.” –Paul Krugman, “Sanders Over the Edge”; The NYT (4/8/2016) No matter what you think of big banks or who caused The 2008 Crash, I think...Read More
In Over His Head (The $64B Question: ‘How’d He Get There?’) At least to me, the truly provocative question about former Treasury Secretary and New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner isn’t what was going on at the senior-most levels of government during the height (depth?) of The 2008 Financial Crash (sorry, “Great Recession” is a...Read More
Buy Boycott This Book So, five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the 2008 financial crash, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is peddling a new forward, “Five Years Later,” to his 2011 book “On the Brink.” Ironically, at 38 pages, Mr. Paulson’s forward is a whopping 35(!) pages longer than his original TARP...Read More
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Redefines Chutzpah* (Again) “I believe that the root cause of every financial crisis, the root cause, is flawed government policies.” — Henry Paulson –Andrew Ross Sorkin, “Five Years After TARP, Misgivings on Bonuses“; The New York Times (8/26/2013) Surprise, surprise, Henry Paulson exonerates himself and the banking industry generally for its role...Read More
Double-Standard? And How! If the U.S. government handled the housing crisis the same way it treated Wall Street after the 2008 financial crash (emphasis on “treat”), here’s what would have happened: 1. It would long ago have purchased — at inflated cost(!) — the homes of every underwater homeowner in the country; 2. It would then...Read More
