Category Archives: Investment banks

Mirabile Dictu! Goldman Lost Money Only One Day in Last Quarter

OK, I have heard all the explanations, spreads are wider because there are fewer market makers, asset prices are rallying (market making firms are structurally long; it’s difficult and costly to go net short on that big a balance sheet), Goldman is currently the trading kingpin. But I still find these factoids remarkable: Goldman lost […]

Guest Post: Take the Power to Create Credit Away from the Giant Banks and Give It Back to the People

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog Many people – including former analyst for the U.S. Treasury Richard Cook – argue that credit is too important a function to be left to the private banks. Indeed, even after taxpayers have given trillions in bailouts, backstops, guarantees, and other gifts, the giant banks are still not lending […]

“How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash” (AIG as Bagholder Watch)

McClatchy, the only major US news organization to question the Iraq war until is was obvious to all that it was a misguided exercise in neocon hubris, has started a series on Goldman’s famed “short subprime” exercise. While the timing and overall outline are not new (as to when and allegedly why the investment bank […]

Guest Post: Breaking Up The Too Big to Fails Will NOT Harm America’s Ability to Compete with Foreign Banks

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. Preface: Please read to the end to see the humorous quote. I have previously debunked numerous false arguments used to defend the too big to fails. See this and this. But the apologists for the TBTFs are now arguing that breaking up the beached whales … er, giant banks […]

Guest Post: Big Banks Are NOT More Efficient

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. I have repeatedly pointed out that big banks are not more efficient than smaller banks. For example, I previously noted that an article in Fortune concluded: The largest banks often don’t show the greatest efficiency. This now seems unsurprising given the deep problems that the biggest institutions have faced […]

So Now We Know Why Lehman Went Under

The New York Times published an edited extract from Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big Too Fail (man, that book is so large, they can release a ton in advance and still have a book and a half of reading left over). This section is on some of Dick Fuld’s efforts to save Lehman. The Japanese […]

Quelle Suprise! Banking Profits Might Be Due to Big Government Subisdies!

Actually, despite the somewhat churlish headline, the story “Bailout Helps Fuel a New Era of Wall Street Wealth,” by Graham Bowley at the New York Times, is a solid job of reporting and does not tiptoe around the issue of the big bennies that the financial services industry is enjoying and their role in creating outsized […]

Guest Post: More Goldman Lies

From Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment analyst who writes for New Deal 2.0: As reported by Bloomberg: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of the first banks to receive cash injections from the U.S. Treasury during last year’s crisis, doesn’t have an implicit guarantee from the government, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said today. […]

Guest Post: Bank Lobbyists Are Not Only Trying to Kill NEW Legislation, They Are Trying to Weaken EXISTING Regulations

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. Everyone knows that the lobbyists for the financial giants are trying to kill any tough new regulations. But they are also trying to weaken existing regulations. Specifically, Robert Borosage notes: The [derivatives] bill that the House will consider on Wednesday creates a clearinghouse, not a publicly managed exchange. It […]

Guest Post: The REAL Battle Over America’s Banking System

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. The battle to reform the American banking system needs to include reimposing the barrier between investment banking and depository banking (Glass-Steagall), pay incentives based on what is best for Americans and not just the top executives, the end of too big to fail, and other changes which are frequently […]

Securitization Drought Exposes Policy Bind, Threatens Recovery

The New York Times has a good update on the progress, or more accurately, lack thereof, in the efforts to return to normalcy in the credit markets. The story highlights the fact that the securitization markets, to the extent they are operating, are heavily dependent on government intervention and it does not appear likely that […]

Janet Tavakoli: On the Edge with Max Keiser

Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Janet Tavakoli was a recent guest on “On the Edge with Max Keiser” and had some troubling things to say about the state of the present U.S. financial system. She believes the liquidity pumped into the system will not be sufficient to reflate the economy because of over-leveraged […]

Guest Post: The Real Reason the Giant, Insolvent Banks Aren’t Being Broken Up

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. Why isn’t the government breaking up the giant, insolvent banks? We Need Them To Help the Economy Recover? Do we need the Too Big to Fails to help the economy recover? No. The following top economists and financial experts believe that the economy cannot recover unless the big, insolvent […]

Guest Post: Why Concentration in the Banking Industry Threatens Our Economy

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. As everyone knows, the big banks have gotten bigger and bigger. Noted economist Mark Zandi says we have an oligopoly of banks, and that “the oligopoly has tightened”. The TARP Inspector – Neil Barofsky – told Huffington Post yesterday that, because of the consolidation in the banking industry: I […]

Guest Post: William K. Black’s Proposal for “Systemically Dangerous Institutions”

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. William K. Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, and the former head S&L regulator, has written the following fantastic new proposal concerning the giant, insolvent banks. Posted/reprinted with Professor Black’s permission. William K. Black Associate Professor of Economics and Law […]