Let’s see. Citigroup has gotten $45 billion of TARP funds, and backstops on a net of roughly $250 billion of crappy loans after Ciit’s first loss and allowing for the split between Uncle Sam and Citi on the balance. And it is pretty unlikely that we have seen the end of Citi’s funding needs. GM […]
Read more...We have been skeptical that the pending Treasury stress tests on banks, designed to ascertain their state of health, were inadequately staffed and therefore could not do the job properly. Our big concerns were that they had too few bodies to test financial data versus underlying documentation adequately (usually done on a sampling basis) and […]
Read more...We are back to weekend melodrama, but this one is starting on Sunday night, not a Thursday or Friday. Not good. Citigroup is apparently throwing itself on the mercy of the court, um, taxpayers, once again, but even the bankster favoring Geithner/Summers team know that the public at large is losing patience with financial firm […]
Read more...In a post yesterday, some readers bandied about the idea of developing some reasonably thought out proposals for “nationalization” or “receivership” or “pre-privatization”, possibly on an open source model of some sort. (Aside: those who know how Linux was developed know that it wasn’t free form; Linus Torvalds exercised control, one might think of it […]
Read more...Some readers and fellow bloggers have been anticipating an over-the-weekend resolution of some sort for Citigroup and/or Bank of America, given the impressive fall (admittedly from already distressed levels) in their stock prices over the last ten days. I could well be proven wrong, but I didn’t expect it this weekend, and I don’t see […]
Read more...Dear readers, this is a bit of an experiment (think of it as the econblog analogy to open source). When Geithner presented his bank plan, such as it was, I was particularly disgusted by the “public/private partnership plan rubbish. It struck me as a costly way to paper over the irresolvable conundrum with Paulson’s two […]
Read more...Some readers may take issue with the headline, but bear me out. Within ten days of 1987 stock market crash, President Reagan established what was popularly called the Brady Commission to investigate the causes of the meltdown and recommend remedies. A little more than two months after it was created, the Commission submitted its report. […]
Read more...Greg Mankiw today addresses an issue which has been nagging at me, but I have neglected to address. I’ve gotten a fair number of comments along the lines of “I’m opposed to bank nationalization, but I agree we need to do something, so put them in bankruptcy.” Aargh. No one seems to have a problem […]
Read more...Before readers start throwing brickbats at the mention of the name of Alan Greenspan, it’s important to remember that he has become the poster boy of the policy errors that lead to our financial mess. And that isn’t an accurate picture. This crisis had many parents, and even though Greenspan was one of the key […]
Read more...As the economy weakens, big ticket items like cars are particularly hard hit. And GM’s offer of 0% financing, which lead to a brief flurry of buying, apparently wasn’t enough to offset the trend of broad-based consumer retrenchment. There is a bit of disparity in reporting. The Wall Street Journal tells us GM now says […]
Read more...By way of background, William Black is a former senior bank regulator, best known for his thwarted but later vindicated efforts to prosecute S&L crisis fraudster Charles Keating. He is currently an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. More germane for the purpose of this post, Black […]
Read more...One of our beefs has been the lack of any progress, even interesting trial balloons, on the financial firm reform front. And that’s a serious problem. Economists like to point to the Great Depression as the textbook example that fiscal stimulus works. FDR launches a bunch of spending plans, and voila, by 1936, the economy […]
Read more...It looks like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers are executing a land grab. From the New York Times: President Obama has dropped the idea of appointing a single, powerful “car czar” to oversee the revamping of General Motors and Chrysler and will instead keep the politically delicate task in the hands of his most senior […]
Read more...In case you think my headline is too harsh, consider the one at Bloomberg: “Obama to Work on Executive Pay Limits After Industry Complaints.” So in case you were laboring under the delusion that widespread managerial failure among the nations’ top banks, to the point of being dependent on taxpayer provided drip-feeds among the nation’s […]
Read more...Last week. Bloomberg reported that Volcker, who many regard as the best asset on Obama’s economics team, is sorely underutilized: Paul Volcker has grown increasingly frustrated over delays in setting up the economic advisory group President Barack Obama picked the former Federal Reserve chairman to lead… Volcker, 81, blames Obama’s National Economic Council Director Lawrence […]
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