From time to time, there are marked disparities in how events are reported in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. In the overwhelming majority of times, it’s the Journal’s reporting that’s deficient. Today’s sighting fits the classic pattern. The difference in headlines says it all. The Journal’s is: “German Bank Blames UBS for […]
Read more...IBM Wants to Patent Rewards for Restaurant Waits US Patent and Trademark Office The Next Slum? The Atlantic. Coming to a suburb near you. Ripped Off by the Banking Industry Credit Slips Water, water … nowhere Gristmill Capitalism’s Mysterious Triumph Paul Krugman (hat tip Mark Thoma). This is a must read. Contrary to current opinion, […]
Read more...The markets seem to think so…..From Doug Noland at Prudent Bear: Now Fannie is in theory a good credit, but its implicit Federal guarantee has never been tested. Market observers may be worried that many of the “rescue the homeowner” proposals, starting with what Tanta calls “Loans Formerly Known as Jumbos” now eligible for the […]
Read more...Steve Waldman at Interfluidity reminds us that bailouts can be useful or misguided, depending on the circumstances. Trying to shore up overvalued assets is simply a bad idea and often compounds the damage. Unfortunately, as we will discuss in this post, the use of Waldman’s criteria demonstrates that many of the proposed housing market rescue […]
Read more...Jeffrey Sachs, in an article for Project Syndicate (hat tip Mark Thoma), argues that private sector efforts alone won’t yield sufficient progress in achieving needed progress on the environmental and anti-poverty fronts. Part of this, of course, is the classic problem of externalities: carbon emissions are free to the perps, but impose costs on everyone. […]
Read more...This is not cheery news. So far, this story seems to be running only on BBC: UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica. If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea […]
Read more...Commercial property values in for steep drop, says loan liquidator Financial Week (hat tip Michael Panzner) 30-70%? — Probably Not the Real Rate of Mortgage Fraud Bob Lawless, Credit Slips Publication Bias in Drug Trials Social Science Statistics Blog Evidence of “Walking Away” In WaMu Mortgage Pool Michael Shedlock Banks Freezing HELOCs Calculated Risk Shleifer […]
Read more...This post comes in significant degree from jck at Alea, who has access to the report, “Counterparty risk in credit markets,” from Barclays Capital and was kind enough to post the summary of key points. Despite the link, I seem unable to download it, but the summary is sufficiently detailed that I don’t think I […]
Read more...We aren’t in a position to answer the question posed in the headline, but following a leak that lead to a 250 point rally in the Dow, the noises coming from the team trying to rescue the troubled number two bond insurer have suddenly taken an optimistic tone. While the initial reports were vague, the […]
Read more...Pity the poor hedge fund manager. The markets have gotten so treacherous of late that most are not likely to see as much in years past from their 20% of the upside fees, but 2% on a big fund isn’t too shabby either. However, the bigger pressure comes from the fact that plain-vanilla, low cost […]
Read more...The pig farming industry in England is in crisis. From the Telegraph: Farming leaders believe that a viable domestic pig sector could be wiped out within months unless urgent action is taken by the government and retailers. The national pig herd has already halved over the past 12 years. Desperate UK pig farmers have doubled […]
Read more...Readers may have heard of cases, starting in Ohio, where judges have dismissed foreclosures because the bank (usually the mortgage servicer on behalf of a securitized entity) was unable to provide the right paperwork showing that it in fact owned the mortgage. That often results from mortgages passing though several hands before being securitized and […]
Read more...A comment in today’s Financial Times, “The fall of a financial model,” by Jean-Louis Beffa, chairman of Saint Gobain and Xavier Ragot of the Paris School of Economics argues that the approach to financial capitalism in operation for the last decade is coming to an end. They define the model as giving a primary to […]
Read more...Floyd Norris in the New York Times has an interesting article that laments the fact that, unlike past financial crises, no one has stepped forward to encourage the sort of risk-taking needed to restore order to the markets. Even though I enjoyed the piece, ultimately, the effort to look for a single agent to rally […]
Read more...Man, not only does the Administration tell whoppers, but it is completely shameless about them. The latest sighting comes from Reuters: Treasury Undersecretary Robert Steel told the Reuters Housing Summit it is proper for homeownership to hold a special status…. “If I default on my credit card debt, no one here knows and it has […]
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