September 30, 2008
Interesting to see that so many companies with nothing to do with Wall Street, banking, or trading all got off their asses and began shouting at Congress today. Stories are everywhere about people like Microsoft's Steve Ballmer finally realizing that...
Good description in a recent CEPS report of how the U.S., via its AIG bailout, temporarily saved the over-leveraged European banking system. But the AIG case shows the importance of another link across financial markets, namely massive regulatory arbitrage. The...
I've long argued that part of the reason why things have gotten to this point is that we don't have enough smaller banking crises, so we just have the odd epochal one instead. It's much the same point as is...
Even more links that keep flooding into my inbox: Administration, Congress Completely Fail Communications Test (Advertising Age) Corporate bonds have worst month since 1980: "the only thing you know is that if you don't buy anymore, you can't get hurt...
A snapshot of exchange rate trends over the last 90-days among major currencies to the U.S. dollar. A bit of vindication underway for the Yen given the similarity of the credit crisis to Japan's experience more than a decade ago....
A few quick links to items of interest today: Blast from the past: Fannie Mae eases credit to aid mortgage lending (NY Times/1999) The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy (Amazon) Op-ed: Beijing slowdown is going faster...
So here's where we are at: Almost two weeks ago the market soared when late on a Thursday word broke that Congress would soon see a U.S. plan to help solidify the financial system. It continue to climb the next...
For a literate and interesting take on why taking a little more time to work out a bailout package isn't disastrous, read this Michael Lewitt column. An excerpt: The problem with trying to legislate in the middle of a revolution...
Here is a quick cut at geocoding Monday's House vote on the TARP plan. The following color-coded map of the U.S. shows each state's relative "Nay-isness" or "Yea-ishness", with pure white meaning the state's representatives voted all "Nay", while pure...
A scathing comment over on Nouriel Roubini's RGE Monitor blog that is sure to provoke some strong feelings: It's amazing how many people, including some on this blog, are totally misreading the situation. The House Republicans fear socialism, even this...
After today's debacle on the capital markets -- in a too-fine irony, the S&P 500 lost roughly the same amount in aggregate market capitalization today as the Paulson plan's gross cost -- I thought folks might enjoy an update on...
