Cities switch off for Earth Hour BBC. But not much in the US. Why Toddlers Don’t Do What They’re Told LiveScience. Now if someone would figure out why adults don’t do what they are told, we’d be making real progress. Shareholders Who Act Like Owners Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times Did Goldman Goose Oil? Forbes […]
Read more...Even though I pride myself on being a constitutional cynic, truth be told even I harbor a wee bit of optimism. For instance, even thought I regularly write about how Things Are Going to Hell, Fast, I privately assume I am a pessimist and maybe a bit of a crank too, so things might not […]
Read more...We’ve warned for some time that this downturn is likely to see more companies entering bankruptcy wind up being liquidated rather than continuing to operate thanks to Chapter 11, which allows companies to hold creditors at bay, renegotiate debt and restructure operations, with the idea that an ongoing concern will be able to provide better […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. A buddy of mine emailed me urging me to write about CEO pensions. So how good are CEO pensions? I found a Forbes article from July 2007 stating that CEO pensions continue to soar: Maybe “pension” isn’t the right word anymore to call what the world’s top […]
Read more...Why size matters Steve Waldman Goldman allowed executives to exit funds Financial Times AIG Bonuses as Fraudulent Transfers Adam Levitin Credit Slips Bank Executives May Keep TARP Funds After Meeting With Obama Bloomberg Money creation and the Fed Jim Hamilton, Econbrowser Bank of America Accused in Ponzi Lawsuit New York Times George Soros: Britain may […]
Read more...Submitted by Rolfe Winkler, CFA, publisher of OptionARMageddon We’re not quite as healthy as we thought we were. Oops. (WSJ) J.P. Morgan Chase Chief Executive James Dimon said…that March was a little tougher than the first two months of the year….Bank of America…CEO Kenneth Lewis also said that March had been a tougher month for […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns Edward Harrison here. What follows is a post I wrote for Credit Writedowns last night. Before I present the post, I want to make a few editorial comments, however. First, for full disclosure, I support Barack Obama. I voted for him, campaigned for him and contributed […]
Read more...Crabs ‘sense and remember pain’ BBC. Look, I already feel bad when I eat lobster, having steamed a few in my time. Also, an elephant car wash. Huge Supernova Baffles Scientists TFOT Obama Backs Banks, Seeks to Block Fair-Lending Probe Bloomberg (hat tip reader John) Fed needs to double balance sheet: PIMCO Reuters. So Pimco […]
Read more...Alan Greenspan had a brief moment when he seemed capable of being redeemed, when he admitted before Congress that he was wrong about his assumptions that firms could regulate themselves. I have yet to see another central figure in the banking meltdown admit error. But he has now gone back to trying to salvage burnish […]
Read more...Since I haven’t put together a detailed timeline, I run the risk of having the sequence wrong and therefore being at risk of putting foot in mouth and chewing too. But from where I sit, the only person in the US who seems to be doing anything meaningful to try to contain the looting of […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Pension funds for companies in Standard & Poor’s 1500 Index met 74% of future obligations in February, down from 89% before the market crashed, Bloomberg reports: The amount by which U.S. pensions are underfunded has almost doubled since October to $373 billion, increasing pressure on companies to […]
Read more...Darwin’s ‘gentleman’ student days BBC Hey Paul Krugman (A song, A plea) You Tube (hat tip reader Scott) US retail investors flee to savings Financial Times Surge in short selling clouds rally prospects Financial Times China raises jobless migrant count to 23 million CNBC (hat tip reader Michael) Will the Geithner Plan Produce True Market […]
Read more...Not that they listen to him, sadly. Buiter famously told the Fed in a presentation at its Jackson Hole conference that it was guilty of cognitive regulatory capture. Buiter argues that the games the Fed and Treasury are playing, with the Fed providing loans and guarantees that properly should come from the Treasury, is bad […]
Read more...It certainly looks as if Citigroup and Bank of America are using TARP funds, not to lend, which was one of the primary goals of the program, but to scoop up secondary market dreck assets to game the public private investment partnership. And it fleeces the taxpayer a second way: the public has spent enough […]
Read more...We have what is arguably the best Fed chairman ever ready to roll up his sleeves during the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. Team Obama has asked him to work on…..the tax code. From Reuters: A panel led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker will study options for U.S. tax reform and report […]
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