Category Archives: Banking industry

Former Representative Brad Miller: Naked Capitalism – My Hot Sheet on Finance

Matt Taibbi described in “How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform” the many ways “the banks strangled the Dodd-Frank law,” including the effort by House Republicans after the 2010 election to “pass a gazillion loopholes.”

“You might wonder,” Taibbi wrote, “how a bunch of lunkhead Republican Congressmen would even know how to write a coordinated series of ‘technical fixes’ to derivatives legislation, a universe so complicated that it has become hard to find anyone on the Hill who truly understands the subject. (One Congressman who sits on the Financial Services Committee laughingly admitted that when the crash of 2008 happened, he had to look up ‘credit default swaps’ on Wikipedia.)”

Yeah, that was me.

How the Foreclosure Crisis Made the Rich Even Richer

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It’s a welcome departure to see Adam Davidson’s weekly column in the New York Times, which usually puts a happy face on how the 1% are winning the class war in America, have a guest writer look at the other side of the story.

David Dayen: Justice’s Deceit on the JPMorgan Settlement, and Why Ed DeMarco Should Get Some Apologies

The moral bankruptcy of the Justice Department’s fake crusade against JPMorgan Chase was always fairly obvious, considering that the Attorney General is holding private meetings with Jamie Dimon, the chief potential suspect in a criminal case (hey, at least those talks were “constructive”). Just yesterday, Dimon walked into the White House to meet with the President, afforded the respect of an elder statesman. The idea that he’s under “attack” is absurd.

But this has now burst into the open with Justice’s desire to stick the FDIC with half the bill:

Monetary Policy Implementation: Some Facts and a Monetary Myth.

Nathan here. Tonight I’m moderating an event on monetary policy implementation at my University, the University of Ottawa. We will have three speakers, Donna Howard, Eric Tymoigne and Marc Lavoie. The event will begin about 5:30 and will probably finish- at the latest- by 7:30. Donna Howard is a former head of financial markets at […]

Why the US Mortgage Market Will Remain Heavily Dependent on Government Support (Updated)

In Senate Banking Committee testimony today, Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin explains why the private label (non-government guaranteed) mortgage market is a textbook case of what Nobel prize winning economist George Akerloff called a “market for lemons”.

Yanis Varoufakis: What Merkel’s Third Term Means for Europe

Yves here. Varoufakis gives a high-level overview of the political and economic constraints on Merkel in dealing with the festering Eurocrisis. While many of the political issues have received decent coverage in the English language press, the nature and severity of Germany’s economic challenges have gotten scant notice.

So Why is Dimon Getting to Plead His Case for JP Morgan (and Maybe Himself) Directly with Holder?

I got this e-mail from a law school professor this evening:

wtf is with Eric Holder personally meeting with Jaimie Dimon? Since when do other targets of investigations get such access and solicitude?

The Fat Lady Has Yet to Sing for Dimon and JP Morgan

I thought I was late to write about JP Morgan’s $920 million multi-regulator settlement last week on the London Whale, but breathless news of a possible $11 billion settlement of mortgage-related liabilities has pushed the bank and its chief back under the hot lights.

Ilargi: From Tragedy To Travesty – Selling Off The Cradle Of Democracy

Is it merely a coincidence that the troika rode its Trojan horse into Athens again on the very day Angela Merkel went awfully close to an absolute majority in German elections? I’m sure it is. But it’s still very bad news for the Greeks, who now have their perhaps last chance to throw out the international financial system and decide their own fate, before most of their valuables have been sold off to foreign interests. Greece is where democracy started, and the way things are going, it may be where it will end as well.

Mathew D. Rose: Good News for Merkel is Not Necessarily Good News for Europe

The German word for election, Wahlen, comes from the word “choice”, and in this general election there wasn’t really one. And that’s too bad for the rest of Europe.

Quelle Surprise! More Proof that the FCIC was a Whitewash, Thanks to Angelides and Born

It is unpleasant to face up to the fact that quite a few of the people who are lauded as courageous were not as brave as their PR would lead you to believe.

China’s Ultimate Debt Holders—Not the Borrowers

In China, things are not looking pretty.

Robert Prasch: The “Lessons” that Wall Street, Treasury, and the White House Need You to Believe About the Lehman Collapse

Five long years have passed since the demise of the once venerable firm of Lehman Brothers. To mark the occasion, Wall Street, the United States Treasury Department, the White House, and their several political proxies and spokespersons have taken to the mass media to instruct the public in the “lessons” to be drawn from the financial crisis of 2007-09. Regrettably, we are witnessing the propagation of several self-serving falsehoods in the hope that the public can be induced to embrace them now that the immediacy of the events in question is in the past. Some of the lessons are so flagrantly false that they demand immediate correction.

TD Bank: “We Don’t Have to Obey the Law” on Check Processing

I’m going to tell one on myself in the of exposing an abuse in retail banking that is likely news to you. It certainly stunned everyone that has heard my little tale so far. I’m hoping that readers who know of or have had similar experiences will pipe up in comments.