While there was not much in the way of new developments on the bond insurer front on Tuesday, the media chatter features some interesting cross currents. On the one hand, the Financial Times, which had some relatively upbeat coverage the day before, had an article on the impressively large level of short interest in the […]
Read more...Here we go again. We have another Ben Stein column, “Can Their Wish Be the Market’s Command?” which says, I kid you not, that we have a bear because a whole bunch of traders got together and made it so. Since undue contemplation of Ben Stein logic is bad for anyone’s mental health, I will […]
Read more...A very good article by David Leonhardt in today’s New York Times raises a question that would have been regarded with considerable skepticism as recently as, say, even August, when the perturbations in the debt markets seemed to be the largely the result of the subprime meltdown. That question is whether the Great Moderation, the […]
Read more...Now it is hard to suggest that giant brokerage firm Merrill Lynch is being treated kindly by the press these days, given the deserved harsh scrutiny resulting from its staggering fourth quarter writeoffs. Nevetheless, we noted an oddity today. The Journal is running a story, “Springfield, Mass., Takes Aim at Merrill Over Subprime Losses,” that […]
Read more...Despite a sharply negative opening, the Nikkei is up as of this hour, so there is some hope that the frazzled nerves of Thursday might calm in the US too. The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal both address one of the major causes of the mini-panic: a new focus on counterparty risk. The […]
Read more...Today, Ben Stein, in his New York Times column, “Larry, Curly, Moe and the Economy,” uses the Three Stooges as metaphor for the Fed’s actions: the central bank, like the celluloid comics, keep hitting the wrong person on the head. According to Stein, the Fed is unduly preoccupied with inflation and it should instead engage […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal reports that Prince Al-Waleed, who salvaged Citi in the early 1990s (its stock was at $9 on its way to zero) is expected to pump equity into the bank again. Note there are some disparities between the Journal’s story and the one in the Financial Times. For example, the Journal says […]
Read more...Believe it or not, I found this less downbeat than most economic news du jour. Things are not yet as bad as they have been in past downturns, at least according to the Economist’s house measure: The Economist’s informal R-word index is also sounding alarms. Our gauge counts how many stories in the Washington Post […]
Read more...Why is it that no one in America seems able to say what Willem Buiter, a professor at the London School of Economics, sets forth at his blog at the Financial Times, namely, that we Americans are far too timid in dealing with right wing extremists? Does being liberal in America mean you can’t point […]
Read more...John Hockenberry, former Dateline correspondent, describes in the MIT Technology Review how the networks’ preoccupation with hanging on to their viewers has gotten in the way of reporting news. News programs, at least as exemplified by NBC, where Hockenberry once worked, go to considerable lengths to find affirming emotional narratives and avoid upsetting or challenging […]
Read more...Two readers pointed us to very good post by John Hussman that goes through the Fed’s open market desk operations in detail, and then looks at similar work done on the European Central Bank’s activities (including its widely reported $500 billion liquidity injection). He concludes that in fact liquidity, meaning bank reserves plus money in […]
Read more...Ben Stein is up to his old tricks. Here he gave the impression of being done for the year, having penned an article of a classic end of year type, “what I should do better next year.” But he snuck another piece in this week, “Tattered Standard of Duty on Wall Street.” The article claims […]
Read more...Dani Rodrik has managed to be able to debunk the economic orthodoxy, most notably in his area of expertise, namely trade and development, and still retain the respect of his peers. Of course, having tenure at Harvard (Kennedy School) doesn’t hurt. But Rodrik is also unfailingly articulate, fair-minded, and rigorous. His latest post takes issue […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal has a page one story, “Fraud Seen as a Driver In Wave of Foreclosures,” which probes the role of mortgage scams. I’m sure Tanta will wax eloquent on this article, but let me hazard a couple of observations. First, the article seeks to describe the fraud problem, citing the widely-touted Mortgage […]
Read more...It’s rare that I find fault with the the Financial Times, and even more uncommon with Gillian Tett and Paul Davies, who are two of their most seasoned and insightful journalists. Nevertheless, they have bitten off more than they can chew in “Out of the shadows: How banking’s secret system broke down.” The piece isn’t […]
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