Giant dinosaurs ‘held heads high’ BBC
Tiger mauls NZ zoo keeper to death Times Online
Banks Aiming to Play Both Sides of Coin Wall Street Journal. A more accurate title would be “Banks Shamelessly Ask Permission to Game PPIP in the Open.” After all, if they did it through friendly intermediaries, it just reduces the subsidy to the banks, which was the whole point of the exercise, right?
Japan, Korea, Detroit and banker bonuses John Hempton
Recession Imperils Loan Forgiveness Programs New York Times
Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst? The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Finance-Government Complex & The End of U.S. Economic Dominance Satyajit Das (hat tip reader Earl Crockett)
Purchase Accounting Rules Set to Deliver $29 Billion Profit Windfall to JP Morgan and Other Banks Jesse (hat tip reader DoctoRx) and Revisiting WaMu Felix Salmon. WaMu reportedly was hit by the start of a bank run, but that does not explain the FDICs’ response. Did it think it could not provide enough liquidity? Or was WaMu losing uninsured deposits, and had enough at risk of flight that the FDIC could not effectively intervene. I am not saying Bair made the right decision (on the surface it looks like a colossal error) but the complaints I have seen do not appear to have considered all possibilities.
Germany’s Subprime Crisis: Interview With Achim Dübel Institutional Risk Analytics
Strange but true – the credit specs are back John Dizard, Financial Times
Antidote du jour:
Carrick 
Posts
After all, if they did it through friendly intermediaries, it just reduces the subsidy to the banks, which was the whole point of the exercise, right?Indeed, but sunlight has most decidedly not been the goal of any of the recapitalization and confidence creation schemes out there.
I can say scheme without it being loaded, because I’m in London on the tail end of a crazy series of business trips, about to depart for home sweet home. Thanks for the excellent literature for the flight.
Re: higher education, from my perch, there are already extraordinary budget pressures striking the industry from the state budget crunches. The private schools are insulated to some degree, but play on the same field and are leveraging the opportunity. There are hiring and travel freezes all over the place, and some schools are facing budget cuts as large as 10% on the top line.
Individual salaries aren’t that high, though there is indeed some fat on the bones. Particularly where the workers are unionized — and I’m pro-union — a significant fraction of the staff does very little for the university at all.