If you are down under, pet a ‘roo or drink some shiraz for me! Free Monty Python Videos on Youtube Lead to 23,000% DVD Sale Increase SlashFilm Why the Federal Reserve should LITERALLY throw money out of helicopters John Hempton. And do read the post that prompted it: Inflation v. Deflation Cassandra The benefits of […]
Read more...Before we get to the particulars of tonight’s Wall Street Journal story, we need to step back a second. Just like the war in Iraq, which had a ton of justifications served up by the Bush Administration, none of which added up (and the most obvious one, that the Bushies wanted to control the second […]
Read more...Some readers have suggested that while ex-Merrill CEO John Thain’s actions post the agreement to buy his firm were questionable, his ouster was an effort to divert blame and attention for the turkey deal from BofA CEO Ken Lewis. If Thain, as Lewis charged, ducked direct questions about Merrill’s deteriorating financial condition, or worse, was […]
Read more...The Administration has evidently launched a campaign to warn the American public that the black hole banking industry will need more in the way of recapitalization funding than is currently on offer. Mind you, we are NOT opposed to this sort of thing were it done correctly: tough minded banking industry reforms, seizure of the […]
Read more...Goat detained over armed robbery Reuters Whale pod stuck on sandbar dying BBC Our world may be a giant hologram New Scientist (hat tip reader Bill) Price Watergate Independent Accountant. On Satyam. “I find PWC’s being unaware of this fraud inconceivable.” He has company in his view: Price Waterhouse Auditors Arrested in Satyam Inquiry Bloomberg […]
Read more...I have been off the Ben Stein beat for quite some times, since it is ably covered by Felix Salmon and I don’t want to encourage Stein by giving him undue attention. But this week’s offering is such a doozy that I had to say something. Now remember, his column is titled, “Everybody’s Business.” So […]
Read more...Team Obama has started to preview some of its financial reform proposals. And if the New York Times has represented it accurately, it falls far short of what is called for. Consider the opening sentence of the article: The Obama administration plans to move quickly to tighten the nation’s financial regulatory system. If all the […]
Read more...Climate shift ‘killing US trees’ BBC Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case Wired Bob the Impaler I, Cringley (hat tip reader Jean-Paul). Charges that Microsoft’s layoffs fall considerably short of what is needed. JRE Keeps You Entertained All Weekend: A Series of (Metal) Tubes Josh Reviews Everything Indians flee Dubai as dreams crash DaijiWorld […]
Read more...Our guest blogger Lune (who in one of his past lives worked on the Hill) was just in India and gives us his take on the Satyam Computers case, which has gotten scant coverage in the US. The Indian government’s reaction to its biggest corporate scandal ever makes for a useful object lesson. From Lune: […]
Read more...Adam Levitin at Credit Slips has a big beef with a lot of the critics of the idea of mortgage cramdowns as an alternative to foreclosure. For the most part, they don’t know what they are talking about. That charge may sound extreme. but Levitin makes a persuasive case. First, the only empirical work done […]
Read more...Little dung beetle is big chopper BBC. A scavenger turns carnivore. Newspaper Jacket Keeps Homeless People Warm Springwise Whistleblower: NSA spied on everyone, targeted journalists The Raw Story “Threading a Needle” Tim Duy Firms Keep Lobbying as They Get TARP Cash Wall Street Journal The Big 87654 Did It! Independent Accountant Wall Street’s Sick Psychology […]
Read more...Readers may recall that we hated the TARP from its inception. Recall that the TARP was so named because the TA stood for “troubled asset”. The plan was to buy crappy assets from banks because this would leave them with nice pristine balance sheets and they could go forth and be reckless lend once again. […]
Read more...Wellie, lots of commentators (see here and here for a sampling) have taken note that Timothy Geithner contradicted himself royally today in his Congressional testimony. And mind you, this was WRITTEN testimony, so one cannot give him the benefit of the doubt (such as that he did a bad job of tap dancing when faced […]
Read more...Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis gave former Merrill chief John Thain an unceremonious heave-ho earlier today, a mere month after the Merrill deal closed, after one too many nasty surprises: the deterioration of Merrill in the fourth quarter, the revelation that Merrill effectively stiffed BofA by paying bonuses early, thus depriving the bank of […]
Read more...New evidence on Antarctic warming BBC How to move a boat without an engine, paddles or sails Network World A New Meme: Blame It on Beijing (and Seoul, and Riyadh…) Menzie Chinn. This is a useful post, but where has Chinn been? The Fed has been pushing the “savings glut is the problem” line for […]
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