Marriner Eccles on the Need to Save the Rich from Themselves
Hoisted from comments, this from reader barrisj. When I went to read the London Banker post in question, I too was struck by the passage barrisj singled out:
Read more...Category Archives: Politics
Europe Readying Yet Another “This Really Will Do the Trick” Bailout Package
Well, we are clearly in crisis mode. We are back to weekends being a period when you need to watch the news in a serious way.
And in another bit of deja vu all over again, the powers that be in Europe are readying yet another bailout plan, this one supposedly big enough to do the trick once and for all.
Read more...Obama’s Work for Almost Free, Maybe You Get Hired Program
I so often criticize the New York Times for doing stenography for officialdom that I feel compelled to point out a case of good reporting on an Obama initiative I’ve seen criticized in other venues and failed to shred on NC.
The Times piece focuses on a Georgia “tryout” program in which workers still on unemployment get to work for free for prospective employers for a maximum of 24 weeks. The employer is under no obligation to hire anyone. Needless to say, this program is more than a tad skewed in favor of companies. But it costs no money and creates the impression the government is Doing Something. So since no one in DC wants the government to spend more money, particularly on little people, this gimmick is perfect fit with the “let them eat cake” zeitgeist.
Key sections of the Times piece:
Read more...The False Dichotomy of Greed
By Sell on News, a macro equities analyst. Cross posted from MacroBusiness
The Euro crisis appears to be developing into something similar to the 1980s Latin American debt crisis when the idea that, to quote Walter Wriston, who ran First National City/ Citibank from the 1960s into the 1980s it was assumed that: “countries don’t go out of business.” The Latin American leadership demonstrated that they, in effect, could, by defaulting. As a number of bloggers at MacroBusiness have pointed out, government finances are not like household finances, although they are often seen that way. That much is well understood in the financial community, although perhaps not as well in the wider public.
Read more...How the Banks Take Down Politicians (Elizabeth Warren Edition)
Big banks are very powerful, and they destroy politicians they don’t like. Obviously, they don’t do it directly, but operate through front groups. Some of these organizations are known as “media outlets”, such as the New York Post, which outed one of Eric Schneiderman’s lawyers as a dominatrix to embarrass and intimidate his office.
Read more...Matt Stoller: Did Geithner Really Undermine Obama on Nationalizing Citigroup?
By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can reach him at stoller (at) gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @matthewstoller
The fight over the future, in the form of the fight over who writes the history of the Obama years, has begun in earnest.
Read more...Philip Pilkington: The History of Greed – An Interview with Jeff Madrick
Jeff Madrick is a journalist, economic policy consultant and analyst. He is also the editor of Challenge magazine, which seeks to give alternative views on economics issues, as well as a visiting professor of humanities at The Cooper Union, director of policy research at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the author of numerous books. His latest book, The Age of Greed, is available from Amazon.
Interview conducted by Philip Pilkington, a journalist and writer based in Dublin, Ireland.
Philip Pilkington: Your book The Age of Greed is a detailed historical survey of some of the key figures that facilitated — broadly speaking — the transition away from the progressive, government-regulated economy of the post-war years and toward the finance-driven, deregulated economy in which we now live. In this interview I don’t want to focus on all the figures that crop up in the book as that is done so there in great detail. Instead I want to explore the broad sweep of this history focusing both on some of the more recognisable of these figures and on the actual cultural, political and economic shift that took place over this period.
Read more...Europe Must Choose
By Delusional Economics, who is unhappy with the current dumbed-down vested interest economic reporting the Australian public is force fed on a daily basis, and takes pleasure in re-reporting the news with “bad” parts removed, and a bit of contrarian balance thrown in. Cross posted from MacroBusiness
The big news from Europe last night was the “surprising” PMI numbers. But as usual the news also goes behind the headline.
Read more...Marshall Auerback: The ECB v. Germany
By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist and hedge fund manager
I’ve been in Amsterdam and met some people very well connected with the ECB. The topic de jour is the apparent split between the Germans and the ECB, especially in light of the resignation of Jürgen Stark last week from the ECB executive board. This has been a move hailed as a German protest of the errant ways of the ECB, andStark is now touting his conservative ideas around Europe in a hope to undermine the central bank’s current interventions. That’s the public line.
But the people to whom I’ve spoken here contend that Stark’s resignation does reflect the reality that the Germans are losing out as far as the ECB goes. The profound objections to what the ECB is becoming on the part of Germany is also accompanied by a realisation that it is the only supranational game in town and has little choice but to take on this quasi-fiscal function that it is now undertaking.
Read more...Banking Updates: More 50 State Settlement Follies; Moody’s Downgrade of Bank of America
I don’t mean to sound as if I am hectoring Shahien Nasiripour, since he has doggedly and successfully broken quite a few banking stories when he was at Huffington Post, which lead the Financial Times to snatch him up. That’s tremendous validation for a young reporter.
However, the conventions of reporting (and it may reflect FT style preferences) are having two unfortunate side effects on his latest article about the so-called 50 state attorney general settlement.
Read more...Bill Black: Why do Banking Regulators bother to Conduct Faux Stress Tests?
Yves here. This is a subject near and dear to my heart. There is one bit that Black is missing, however. McKinsey advised the Treasury on the stress tests. They discussed it openly at a presentation at an alumni meeting.
By Bill Black, an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a white-collar criminologist, a former senior financial regulator, and the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives
One of the many proofs that banking regulators do not believe that financial markets are even remotely efficient is their continued use of faux stress tests to reassure markets. But why do markets need reassurance? If markets do need reassurance that banks can survive stressful conditions, why are they reassured by government-designed stress tests designed to be non-stressful?
Read more...Elizabeth Warren Leads Scott Brown by 2 Points in Latest Poll
We continue to follow the Scott Brown reelection fight because the presumed Elizabeth Warren v Brown matchup will probably be the most closely watched Senate race in 2012.
Public Policy Polling released the results of its latest survey, which show that the press surrounding the Warren campaign launch has led to a big change in the results:
Read more...New Zealand: a Great Place to do Business…and Scams
By Richard Smith
The little story NC carried a couple of months ago about New Zealand scam companies has come out from behind the paywall, courtesy of the NZ Herald (hat tip: John G.). We hinted at the time that the problem’s large and nasty, and the NZ Government admits this in a cabinet paper:
Read more...June Carbone: Why David Brooks Misses the Real Source of Moral Decay – Thirty Years of Class Warfare Against the Working Class
By June Carbone, Edward A. Smith/Missouri Chair of the Constitution Law and Society University of Missouri-Kansas City. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives
The New York Times told two separate stories earlier this week, with no apparent recognition that they might be related. On September 12, David Brooks published a column decrying the moral “relativism and nonjudgmentalism” of the young. On September 13, a front page story announced that “Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade,’” explaining how the economic decline of the bottom half of the population over the past decade has grown worse during the financial crisis.
What do the two stories have to do with each other?
Read more...Bank of New York: A Train Wreck Waiting to Happen?
Many readers no doubt know that the so-called $8.5 billion Bank of America mortgage settlement, which was between the Charlotte bank and the Bank of New York as trustee for 530 residential mortgage securitizations, had run into some very serious headwinds. The deal had to be approved in a so-called Section 77 hearing; a number of interested parties, including some investors, the attorneys general of New York and Delaware, and the FDIC, raised questions and objections to the deal, as well as to the use of a Section 77 hearing (which sets a very high bar for opposing an agreement). Although this saga has a quite a few more rounds to go, it looks likely that any settlement will be considerably delayed and will wind up costing Bank of America a good bit more than $8.5 billion.
What has gotten less attention is the implication of the probable derailment of this deal for the Bank of New York, and its vulnerability to mortgage litigation.
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