Category Archives: Media watch

The Sort of Wall Street Journal Reporting That Makes Me Crazy

In the early days of this blog, I’d regularly compare the Wall Street Journal’s reporting of a news story with that of the Financial Times, because in the vast majority of cases, the Journal had either gotten it badly wrong or was putting a very positive spin on a less obviously cheery fact set. That […]

GM Tells Us Why They Need to Be Saved, on YouTube

It’s the collateral damage… think of all those innocents who had nothing to do with GM’s recidivist mismanagement who will nevertheless be hurt This probably will not go down as a classic (say, the Apple 1984 commercial or the “Harry and Louise” campaign that helped torpedo the Clinton health care plan). And there is a […]

Fed Reverses Self on Promises of Transparency, Continues to Stonewall on Collateral, Lending Disclosure

As this Bloomberg article discusses in detail, the Fed has violated promises it made to Congress, both regarding the amount it would lend (the amounts are vastly in excess of anything envisaged) and its commitments about transparency (which have gone completely by the wayside). Bloomberg has petitioned to get certain details disclosed via a Freedom […]

The Obama Game: Advice and Speculation

I must confess that there are certain types of human activity that are a complete mystery to me, and much of the column ink spilled this weekend serves as a vivid reminder. There are two types of articles very much on display: 1. Who will key members of Obama’s cabinet be (with the financial press […]

Surprisingly Superficial New York Times Article on Troubled Private Equity Deals

A story by Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael de la Merced, “Debt Linked to Huge Buyouts Is Tightening the Economic Vise,” covers the fact that private equity deals, which as a matter of course feature high leverage, are starting to hit the wall as the economy sours. This is hardly surprising; it’s happened in past […]

Paulson vs. Bank Execs: Who is Telling the Truth?

These statements occur within a mere six paragraphs of each other in a Wall Street Journal story, “Devil Is in Bailout’s Details‘: Upending the government’s relationship with the financial sector, the Bush administration outlined a plan Tuesday to prop up banks by injecting $250 billion into U.S. financial institutions…. The government is making clear it […]

Mitsubishi Agrees Revised Terms on $9 Billion Investment in Morgan Stanley

The revised terms are similar to those discussed last night, with the Japanese bank investing the same amount but receiving an increased ownership stake (21%) and receiving more in preferred stock. Note confusion in the Journal article: the news alert, says, “MUFG Closes Morgan Stanley Investment With Revised Terms” when the story itself says both […]

BreakingViews: Bailout Bill to Worsen, Prolong Recession

In the last few days, virtually all mainstream financial media outlets have taken up the banner for the passage of the deeply flawed bailout bill. A bit late in the game, BreakingViews, which is insightful but hardly extreme in any of its positions, argues that the Paulson plan directs capital to where it will not […]

The New York Times Spreads Disinformation About the Paulson Plan

Vikas Bajaj of the New York Times is an able reporter and I have often enjoyed his work. I was therefore taken aback when I read his article, “Plan’s Basic Mystery: What’s All This Stuff Worth?” since it misleads readers as to the intent and thrust of the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program. This is […]

Financial Censorship PR At Work

I try to avoid quoting post in full, but this one is important, it’s been up long enough that I don’t imagine I am siphoning off any traffic, and the folks at FT Alphaville seem to be good sports. As they reported yesterday in “Truth, the flexibility of facts, and market panics“: Phone rings… FT […]

Bloomberg and Financial Times Running Contradictory Reports on Interest in WaMu

Reader Dwight pointed out this amusing disparity in reporting. The Financial Time is definitive, It title: “No bidders come for Washington Mutual“: Hopes of finding a buyer for Washington Mutual dimmed on Thursday as an auction for the beleaguered US bank had yet to attract any bids… Goldman has approached a number of banks, including […]

Credit Crunch Damage to Banks So Far = $500 Billion

This Bloomberg piece, “Banks’ Subprime Losses Top $500 Billion on Writedowns” has some sloppy writing, but I am featuring it nevertheless because it presents some useful data and its headline factoid will no doubt be misconstrued. The headline refers to subprime when in fact the article tallies total creidt crund losses and writedowns, not just […]

Diss du Jour

From John Dizard at the Financial Times: In the case of Henry Paulson, Treasury secretary, it would seem he is distinguished by a profound, possibly intentional, ignorance of what he is talking about, and a central nervous system that would not seem to be capable of abstracting possible outcomes beyond one news cycle.