Author Archives: David Dayen

About David Dayen

David is a contributing writer to Salon.com. He has been writing about politics since 2004. He spent three years writing for the FireDogLake News Desk; he’s also written for The New Republic, The American Prospect, The Guardian (UK), The Huffington Post, The Washington Monthly, Alternet, Democracy Journal and Pacific Standard, as well as multiple well-trafficked progressive blogs and websites. His has been a guest on MSNBC, CNN, Aljazeera, Russia Today, NPR, Pacifica Radio and Air America Radio. He has contributed to two anthology books, one about the Wisconsin labor uprising and another on the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act in Congress. Prior to writing about politics he worked for two decades as a television producer and editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @ddayen.

Links 3/28/16

Good Booms, Bad Booms: Why Only Some Credit Booms End in a Crisis

Credit booms are not rare and usually precede financial crises. However, some end in a crisis while others do not. This column argues that credit booms start with an increase in productivity, which subsequently falls much faster during ‘bad booms’. When this decline is severe enough, it changes the informational regime in credit markets, leading to a drying up of credit. A crisis may be the result of an exhausted credit boom and not necessarily of a negative productivity shock.

Links Pi Day 2016

Silvia Merler: ECB TLTRO 2.0 – Lending at Negative Rates

On Thursday, the ECB surprised observers by announcing a new series of four targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO II) to be started in June 2016. The incentive structure of the programme has changed: on one hand, this TLTRO II could be the first case of lending at negative rates; on the other hand, the link with lending to the real economy might have been weakened.

CFTC Commissioner Giancarlo Admits to Hijacking Advisory Committee to Boost Commodity Speculators

Last week, an advisory committee to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission produced a highly dubious report recommending that the agency abandon the Dodd-Frank mandate of setting position limits in futures markets to eliminate excessive speculation. The report was just an enhanced form of lobbying; eight of the nine members of the Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC) have ties to industries that would personally benefit from killing the rule.

The big question was how an official advisory committee of a federal agency could turn into a purely distilled conduit for corporate talking points? And the answer is Christopher Giancarlo, the lone Republican commissioner on CFTC at the moment, who took advantage of the committee, twisted it to his own ends, and produced a work product destined to be used in future litigation to overturn the position limits rule.

Links Leap Day 2016

Oil Giant Cuts Budget By 80 Percent And Suspends Fracking

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:WLL), the largest oil producer in North Dakota, has announced that it will suspend all fracking in the state and cut its budget for this year by 80 percent in a move that sent its shares up 9 percent on Wednesday, back down to a record low on Thursday, and $4.02 Friday morning.

Links 2/8/16

Capital Requirements: Another Odd Attempt to Declare Victory on Dodd-Frank

I suppose we’re going to have to deal with half-truths and logical stretches about Dodd-Frank right through until November, but Bernie Sanders’ focus on Wall Street has really ramped this up of late. The trajectory appears to be a show of proof of some sort, followed by a blog link from Paul Krugman, at which point the citation hardens into conventional wisdom. The version of this that began a few days ago with Wonkblog’s Matt O’Brien has a level of truth to it, of course, but I don’t think it reveals exactly what its endorsers think.

Wolf Richter: What the Heck is Going on in the Stock Market?

Even Moody’s which is always late to the party with its warnings – but when it does warn, it’s a good idea to pay attention – finally warned: “Don’t fall into the trap of believing all is well outside of oil & gas.”

Links 2/1/16

Third Way Misleads Hard in a Weak Effort to Discredit Social Security Expansion

The Rubinites at Third Way claim that progressive plans to increase Social Security aren’t progressive, making huge leaps of logic to do it

The Bank Whistleblowers United – Who are We, and Why are We Trying to Help Implement Real Banking Reform?

The stories of the four whistleblowers who came together to push for bank accountability in the next Administration.

SEC Data Show Reduction in Criminal Prosecutions Since 2010

Every year the SEC delivers an annual report right around the holidays that gets virtually forgotten by everyone. But a tipster highlighted one part of the document that matches recent research about the way in which the agency plays with numbers. Urska Velikonja, assistant professor at Emory School of Law, released the study late last […]