Category Archives: Banking industry

Part 2 of Real News Network Interview: “The Turkey Votes for Thanksgiving”

Hope you enjoy the second part of our discussion on Real News Network. Part 1 is here. More at The Real News

Alford: The Fed Tests The Thesis That Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right, But Three Do

By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. In reaction to the OPEC-engineered oil price spikes of the 1970s, which economists would depict as external negative supply […]

G20 Proposes Fig Leaf Regulatory Regime for Biggest Banks

The latest idea out of the G20, that of creating an international regulatory structure for the biggest international banks, sounds like progress but I doubt it will prove to be. Some regulators took note of the dangers posed by globe-spanning financial behemoths prior to the crisis. The Bank of England, in its April 2007 Financial […]

We Speak to Real News Network About QE2

I was tight on time for this interview, and as a result I spoke at an even more rapid clip than usual. Hope you enjoy it nevertheless! More at The Real News

Lobbying to Keep the Capital Markets a Casino

Keynes, himself a successful investor, was alert to the danger of a disproportionate level of speculative activity. His oft-repeated remark: Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country […]

Securitization Trustees in the Crosshairs in Mortgage Mess

Tom Adams pointed to an article in American Banker by Kate Berry which discusses how mortgage securitization trustees are increasingly coming under scrutiny in the foreclosure crisis. By way of background, the trustee is the party responsible for securing the assets (the borrower promissory IOUs, liens, and various other documents related to the securitization). The […]

The Irish mess (V)

Back in July, Rebel Economist noted how the Greek bailout actions had compromised the ECB: The first concession made by the ECB was in the collateral requirements for its lending to eurosystem banks. These were set in terms of agency credit ratings, no doubt to distance the ECB from the task of differentiating between the […]

Auerback: Amateur Hour at the Federal Reserve

By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist and Roosevelt Institute Fellow As any student of Economics 101 realises, you can control the price of something, or the quantity, but not both simultaneously. In announcing its decision to purchase an additional $600bn of treasuries last week, the Federal Reserve presumably intended to create additional stimulus to an […]

“The Mortgage Loan Foreclosure Mess: the Banks’ Gluttony; Problems with MERS and Sloppy Securitizations”

Yves here. This post by Linda Beale, who was involved in the tax angles of securitizations in her prior life on Wall Street, first appeared on Angry Bear and on her blog, A Taxing Matter. It’s a very helpful addition to the discussion of the foreclosure crisis. Because it is also a bit technical at […]

John Hussman on QE2, Bernanke’s Recklessness, and the Fed’s Constitution-Abusing Quasi-Fiscal Role

John Hussman is always worth reading, and his current missive is a hum-dinger. I’m extracting some key bits below, and urge you to read it in full. Note that Hussman is far from alone in chiding the Fed for encroaching on Constitutionally-mandated budget processes, including former central bankers. From Willem Buiter: As regards democratic accountability […]

Bank of America Refuses to Play Ball With Overhyped Pimco/Fed/Blackrock Putback Letter

We’ve been astonished at the continued poor reporting on the overhyped mortgage putback possible future action by Pimco, the Fed, Blackrock and others against Bank of America. Everyone seems so mesmerized by the names and the incorrect dollar size attached (the possible action relates to $47 billion of bonds, but the potential liability is much […]

QE2: Bernanke Cuts Geithner Off at the Knees

The Fed’s announcement of $600 billion of intermediate and long Treasury purchase, informally dubbed QE2, teed off a peppy rally in stocks, and led to further weakening of the dollar. These trends were already well in motion thanks to the central bank’s winks and nods that it was going to embark on another round of […]

Obama’s Problem Simply Defined: It Was the Banks

By James K. Galbraith, the author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. He teaches at The University of Texas at Austin. Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0, this post originally appeared at Common Cause. Obama must break his devil’s pact with the banks in order to succeed. […]

Hands, burnt fingers, and American mortgages

Terry Guy Hands has lost his lawsuit against Citigroup, wherein he accused Citigroup of defrauding his private equity group, Terra Firma Capital Partners, by lying about the number of competing bidders during the auction of the record company EMI, for which Terra Firma paid $6.8 Billion. This was one of those top-of the market deals […]

The Irish Mess (IV)

The domestic politics of Ireland are still on a tightrope. Their coalition government, which had has been studiously ignoring three empty parliamentary seats, has now been told by the Supreme Court to get on with it and hold by-elections for one of them, which has been unoccupied for a scandalous 18 months. The by-election is […]