Personal Fortune, Economic Disaster I don’t follow pro sports very closely these days, but growing up, I remember a statistic in basketball and hockey called the “plus/minus ratio.” The goal was to filter out individual statistics like goals scored or baskets made, and instead, focus on each player’s net contribution to their team. The result...Read More
Quick: Synonym for “Other-than-Temporary?” Want to get rid of something? Change — or obscure — its name. So, it’s no longer swine flu, it’s an acronym. In finance, all the toxic loans still on too-big-to-fail bank balance sheets are not “toxic loans” — suddenly, they’re “legacy assets.” And how are those to be valued? According...Read More
Look Who’s Cashing in on the Mortgage Mess Fairly or not, Countrywide Financial and its top executives would be on most lists of those who share blame for the nation’s economic crisis. After all, the banking behemoth made risky loans to tens of thousands of Americans, helping set off a chain of events that has...Read More
