Why QE May Have Done Net Damage
Quantitative easing has been a controversial policy even among the financiers who benefitted from it.
Read more...Category Archives: Banking industry
No Evidence Justice Department Will Prosecute U.S. Banks Responsible for Financial Crisis
Bill Black is in particularly fine form in this Real News Network video.
Read more...Ilargi: A Stampede of Elephants in the China Shop
On the danger that China’s overgrown shadow banking system poses to the economy, and the practical and political obstacles to curbing it.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: Europe’s Slide into Deflation, and What to do About It
By Yanis Varoufakis, a professor of economics at the University of Athens. Cross posted from his website. From an interview for Jornal de Negócios by Jorge N. Rodrigues Europe is in the clasp of the deflationary forces that resulted directly from its inane handling of the Eurozone crisis. In this interview, I discuss deflation and […]
Read more...Bill Black: Since When Does Refusing to Put Fraudulent Banks into Receivership Help the Economy?
Conservative economists love “creative destruction.” They can’t wait to “get their Schumpeter on” when a business fails and thousands of workers lose their jobs.
There is no more “creative destruction” conceivable than when we put a bank that has become a fraudulent enterprise into receivership, remove the controlling officers leading the fraud, and sell the bank through an FDIC-assisted acquisition
Read more...GSE Reform Dead for Now
I’m a little surprised at the overly coded reporting at the New York Times and particularly the Wall Street Journal, where Nick Timiraos provides top-notch coverage on the mortgage beat, on the implications of the failure of a widely-touted, Administration-backed GSE reform bill to get out of the Senate Banking Committee. Basically, it confirms what I’ve long believed but refrained from writing about, namely, that government sponsored enterprise, aka, GSE reform, was not going to get done in this session of Congress.
Read more...Bill Black: GAO and Wall Street Journal Whitewash Huge Criminal Bank Frauds
Every day brings multiple new scandals. At least they used to be scandals. Now they’re simply news items strained of ethical content by business journalists who see no evil, hear no evil, and speak not about evil.
Read more...“Independent” Foreclosure Review Error Rate Vastly Higher Than Previously Admitted
At this point, it seems hard to add insult to injury, given the terrible track record of the OCC Independent Foreclosure Reviews. But it’s nevertheless been done.
Read more...Volcker Rule: Swiss-Cheesed or Beefed Up?
Gerald Epstein provides an informative, layperson-accessible update on what has become of the much-ballyhooed Volcker Rule.
Read more...Quelle Surprise! Ginnie Mae Says Bank of America Has Lots of Servicing Documents Missing; MERS Also in Hot Water
An article by Kate Berry in American Banker earlier this week hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Anyone who was paying attention to the mortgage beat in 2010 through 2012 knew that mortgage securitization originators and servicers were playing fast and loose with critical documents like mortgage notes because they couldn’t be bothered to observe […]
Read more...Mirable Dictu! US Regulators Impose Tougher Rules on Bank Capital
It’s easy to be cynical about the state of bank regulations, since the regulators themselves have for the most part been badly captured by the industry. So it’s important to give them credit when they take a meaningful step in the right direction.
Read more...Robert Cowley, 2nd Baron Ardwhallan: A Scammer’s Comeuppance
Robert Cowley, CEO of fake bank Investment Suisse, goes to jail for fraud
Read more...IMF Imposing Even Tougher Austerity Conditions on New Loans
How the IMF has been devising even nastier versions of its austerity hairshirt in recent years.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: Europe’s Latest Policy on Irish and Greek Banking losses – Two Swindles Too Similar for Comfort
The Irish and the Greeks are, in many ways, very different people. And yet, caught up in the Euro Crisis, their fortunes have become too close for comfort.
Read more...Michael Lewis’ Repeat Omission: No Crimes Were Committed
In Flash Boys, Michael Lewis has again launched a book that hews to his established formula: colorful outsiders take on a big bad entrenched establishment and win. Even though Lewis seems assured of having yet another best-seller, this book is getting more criticism than his works usually do. Put it this way: when commentators as diverse as Felix Salmon, Matt Levine, and Pam Martens feel compelled to object, it looks like Lewis has overfitted this tale to his blockbuster formula.
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