Cutting Wall Street’s Gordian Knot Call me a skeptic when it comes to financial reform. If health care consumed a solid year of legislative maneuvering, how much time will it take to carefully consider the various and sundry proposals to rein in Wall Street, which is infinitely more complicated? Which is kind of the point,...Read More
“Hard Lines, Not Regulatory Discretion”Senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del) has a SUPERB analysis, titled “Wall Street Reform That Will Prevent The Next Financial Crisis,” detailing exactly what caused the financial system to melt down in 2008 — and what should be done about it. Even better: he actually has a say in deciding the latter. Here’s...Read More
Goldman Sachs & the 4 Not-So-Little PIIG’s Wall Street did not create Europe’s debt problem. But bankers enabled Greece and others to borrow beyond their means, in deals that were perfectly legal. –“Wall St. Helped Greece to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis“; The New York Times(2/14/2010) We all know the basic story line by now....Read More
Colbert Interview with Eliot Spitzer I’m not a Stephen Colbert regular, but I did catch his interview the other night with “disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer” (that’s now Spitzer’s official moniker, by the way). Colbert’s cut-to the chase question: even if Wall Street is full of inept crooks and greedheads, as most everyone...Read More
Too Big to Fail? Try, Too Complex to Reform Banks are like the heart that pumps blood ” credit ” to our country’s corporate muscles. If that heart is malfunctioning, any recovery will be anemic. But heart surgery is a very complex thing. You wouldn’t want yours done by a plumber or a politician. –Thomas...Read More
Goldman-Speak for “Mug” Too-big-to-fail firms have become loss transmitters and accelerators to the rest of the system. –“An Ex-Goldman Partner Lets Loose on Wall Street“; Time (2/2/2010). Hmm . . . “loss transmitter and accelerator??” By the same logic, I suppose that the recent, devastating Haiti earthquake was “a focused diffusion of geologic energy.” Or...Read More
