Fri 2010-10-08 20:54 EDT
BofA Halts All Foreclosure Sales - WSJ.com
Bank of America is placing a moratorium on all foreclosure proceedings and sales in the U.S., amid political pressure on U.S. banks to examine foreclosure-documentation problems.
com Topic in The Credit Debacle Catalog
com forums (4); com print article (2); dot-com (2); dot-com companies (1); Oil Runup Exceeds Dot-Com Bubble (1).
RollingStone.com: Matt Taibbi | Taibblog Thu 2010-09-23 09:37 EDT
Bob Rubin Cuddles
...No man's behavior looks attractive when he's cheating on his wife, but this little tell-all by a woman who had a sort-of fling with former Goldman chief and Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin is more than unusually embarrassing...The most disgusting (and revealing) part of the story is, to me, this part of Iris Mack's narrative... A multi-multi-millionaire giving a homeless guy a dollar on the way to the Ritz...if that isn't the perfect metaphor for the modern ``Third Way'' Democratic Party, I don't know what is...Bob Rubin's main job at Citi was to hang around and be available for his political connections. His job, as I understand it, was a sort of permanent, ongoing bribe...
Thu 2010-08-26 09:23 EDT
Jingle mail in Jersey from Hyatt Hotels ... | footnoted.com
If you're in Princeton, New Jersey, anytime soon, swing by the Hyatt Regency Princeton. With the Hyatt Hotels (H) quarterly report filed yesterday, it has become a symbol of the financial crisis... Like households across the country, one of Hyatt's subsidiaries ``did not have sufficient cash flow to meet interest payment requirements under its mortgage loan'' on the property, in this case a 347-room hotel with a restaurant, bar and comedy club, just a mile from [Princeton University]....``When hotel cash flow became insufficient to service the loan,'' the company said in the filing, ``HHC notified the lender that it would not provide assistance.'' In other words, Hyatt decided to walk away -- the equivalent of ``jingle mail''...
Tue 2010-08-24 20:09 EDT
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Is China Executing a Cunning Sun Tzu Strategy to Destroy the Dollar and Cause an Upward Price Explosion in Gold?
Could China be coveting the role of the next economic superpower, thereby supplanting the USA? If so, is China planning to do this by design or is it simply awaiting this result by default as a result of the total collapse of the American economic system?...At a superficial level, it may appear to the onlooker that China has been sucked into a giant malinvestment by purchasing these bonds, but a closer look at Master Sun's stratagems may reveal a well conceived and even cunning plan...China may well be heading in the direction of pegging its currency in some form to something else and that that something else, is very likely to be gold. Then China could offload its US bonds by sale , once again raising the price of gold dramatically which in turn would compensate for the dollar losses...Not only would this give China the only trustworthy currency in the world, but it would simultaneously and conveniently constitute the knock-out blow to the USA as the economic superpower...
caused; China executive; com; Cunning Sun Tzu Strategy; destroyed; Dollar; EconomicPolicyJournal; gold; Upward Price Explosion.
RollingStone.com: Matt Taibbi | Taibblog Sat 2010-08-07 21:06 EDT
Are We In a Recession or Not? [Summers versus Romer]
...Obama's economic team...has seen two fairly major resignations...[Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman Christina Romer] and budget director Pete Orszag...neither of them got along with Larry Summers...Most of the DC chatter class seems to have interpreted the dual resignations as a sign of the ascendant power of the Summers-Geithner axis within the Obama White House...Romer was the Obama administration official who was loudest in her advocacy of a much bigger stimulus, with the idea that the administration's economic strategy should have been based around creating jobs and shaving unemployment as quickly as possible...she was really the only person close to Obama's economic inner circle who isn't a former Clintonite or Rubinite and isn't either a former Wall Street banker or, like Geithner, a public-sector tool of Wall Street...Not that Christina Romer was a savior...but she was at least not completely a Wall Street pod job -- she was pretty much the last inner-circle adviser who wasn't, and now she's gone...
com; Matt Taibbi; Recession; rollingstone; Summers versus Romer; Taibblog.
Wed 2010-07-21 10:30 EDT
More On Deficit Limits - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com
Jamie Galbraith responded to this post in comments; what he said, and my counter-response...Galbraith: ...The so-called long-term deficit is not a real problem. And the capital markets demonstrate every day that they agree with this judgment, by buying long-term Treasury bonds for historically-low interest rates. My response: there's no question that right now there is no problem: if the Fed issues money, it will in fact just sit there...But we won't always be in this situation -- or at least I hope not!...At that point, money that the government prints won't just sit there, it will feed inflation, and the government will indeed need to persuade the private sector to make resources available for government use...
Wed 2010-07-21 10:28 EDT
I Would Do Anything For Stimulus, But I Won't Do That (Wonkish) - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com
...there's a school of thought which says that deficits are never a problem, as long as a country can issue its own currency. The most prominent advocate of this view is probably Jamie Galbraith, but he's not alone...OK, I don't think that's right. To spend, the government must persuade the private sector to release real resources. It can do this by collecting taxes, borrowing, or collecting seignorage by printing money. And there are limits to all three. Even a country with its own fiat currency can go bankrupt, if it tries hard enough...
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Sat 2010-05-22 21:19 EDT
Navigating the Jobs Crisis: Time for a New 'New Deal' Jobs Program
We must use the principles of the New Deal, but create something both broader and permanent: a universal job guarantee available through the thick and thin of the business cycle...
com; full Feeds; HuffingtonPost; job crisis; job program; navigate; new; new deal; Time.
Sat 2010-05-22 14:06 EDT
A Japanese Rx for the West: Keep Spending - Interview with Richard Koo - Barrons.com
America seems to be suffering from the same affliction that has hobbled Japan for so long -- a balance-sheet recession. And no matter how hard the Federal Reserve tries, it won't end until businesses shake their heavy loads....the private-sector companies are no longer maximizing profits; they are minimizing debt. They are minimizing debt because all the assets they bought with borrowed money collapsed in value, but the debt is still on their books, so their balance sheets are all under water. If your balance sheet is under water, you have to repair it. So everybody is in balance-sheet-repair mode...It took us [in Japan] a decade to figure out. People said, "Ah, just run the printing presses, ah, structural reform, ah, just privatize the post office, this and that, and everything will be fine." Nothing worked. This is pneumonia, not the common cold. When people are minimizing debt because of their balance-sheet problems, monetary policy is largely useless. If your balance sheet is under water, in negative equity, you are not going to borrow money at any interest rate, and no one will lend you money, either...
Barrons; com; interview; Japanese Rx; keep spending; Richard Koo; West.
winterspeak.com Sat 2010-05-22 14:02 EDT
Richard Koo, who is so close, is still wrong
...Richard Koo, who understands the situation in Japan (which is very very similar) quite well still makes suboptimal recommendations because he too does not understand how the financial system works...He's correct in saying that massive fiscal stimulus saved Japan. They really were on the brink of their Great Depression in the 80s, and have avoided it without going to War. This is good, but none of it was necessary, so really represents a massive failure. Koo thinks that the Govt is spending the money the private sector has saved. In fact, Govt spending is what is giving the private sector its savings! Government is not borrowing anything. Japan should really just massively slash taxes and fund its private sector. Let the balance sheets heal already! Koo does not talk about all the terrible malinvestment that the Governments fiscal spending did. The US should simply implement a payroll tax holiday until inflation starts to tick up. Right now, the US's savings desire is not as high as the Japanese's, but a double dip might get it closer. That just means the US will need even higher deficits. It took Japan 20 years to start getting comfortable with sufficiently large deficits. Now might be a good time to go long the Nikkei, actually.
closed; com; Richard Koo; Winterspeak; wrong.
Tue 2010-05-11 09:02 EDT
Barofsky Says Criminal Charges Possible in Alleged AIG Coverup - Bloomberg.com
...The TARP watchdog [Neil Barofsy] has also criticized Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner in reports and in congressional testimony for his handling of the process by which insurance giant American International Group Inc. was saved from insolvency in 2008, when Geithner was head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The secrecy that enveloped the deal was unwarranted, Barofsky says, adding that his probe of an alleged New York Fed coverup in the AIG case could result in criminal or civil charges. In Senate Finance Committee testimony on April 20, Barofsky said SIGTARP would investigate seven AIG-linked mortgage-related securities similar to Abacus 2007-AC1, the instrument underwritten by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that is at the center of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed against the investment bank on April 16...
Alleged AIG Coverup; Barofsky Says Criminal Charges Possible; Bloomberg; com.
mcclatchydc.com: Politics Thu 2010-05-06 14:10 EDT
Financial bill has big loophole for Wall Street, expert warns
A Columbia University expert in securities law urged Congress Tuesday to patch "a fundamental hole" in financial regulatory revamp measures by imposing a legal requirement that investment banks act in the best interests of their clients. "Conflicts of interest played a key role in causing and intensifying the 2008 financial crisis," law professor John Coffee told a panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter...
Big Loophole; com; experts warn; financial billed; mcclatchydc; political; Wall Street.
Wed 2010-04-21 12:27 EDT
Goldman Sachs taps ex-White House counsel - Eamon Javers and Mike Allen - POLITICO.com
Goldman Sachs is launching an aggressive response to its political and legal challenges with an unlikely ally at its side -- President Barack Obama's former White House counsel, Gregory Craig. The beleaguered Wall Street bank hired Craig -- now in private practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom -- in recent weeks to help in navigate the halls of power in Washington, a source familiar with the firm told POLITICO...
com; Eamon Javers; Goldman Sachs taps ex-White House counsel; Mike Allen; Politicos.
Sun 2010-03-21 09:58 EDT
Economist.comNatural gas | An unconventional glut | Economist.comNatural gas | An unconventional glut | Economist.com
...North America has an unforeseen surfeit of natural gas. The United States' purchases of LNG have dwindled. It has enough gas under its soil to inspire dreams of self-sufficiency. Other parts of the world may also be sitting on lots of gas. Those in the vanguard of this global gas revolution say it will transform the battle against carbon, threaten coal's domination of electricity generation and, by dramatically reducing the power of exporters of oil and conventional gas, turn the geopolitics of energy on its head...
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Tue 2010-03-09 17:30 EST
Janet Tavakoli: Washington Must Ban U.S. Credit Derivatives as Traders Demand Gold
Congress should act immediately to abolish credit default swaps on the United States, because these derivatives will foment distortions in global currencies and gold. Failure to act now will only mean the U.S. will be forced to act after these "financial weapons of mass destruction" levy heavy casualties. These obligations now settle in euros, but the end game is to settle them in gold. This is so ripe for speculative manipulation that you might as well cover the U.S. map with a bull's-eye...
Ban U.S. Credit Derivatives; com; full Feeds; HuffingtonPost; Janet Tavakoli; Traders Demand Gold; WASHINGTON.
Mon 2010-02-01 17:19 EST
Did Larry Langford bet Birmingham's future on Wall Street scheme? / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
Now on trial in US District Court in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on 60 counts of money laundering and bribery charges, Mr. Langford is at the center of a spectacular scandal where, prosecutors say, a popular mayor whose motto is ``Do something!'' gambled a city's future on a risky Wall Street scheme, all while taking bribes in the form of cash, Rolex watches, and designer clothes.
Christian science Monitor; com; CSMonitor; Larry Langford bet Birmingham's future; Wall Street schemes.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Fri 2010-01-29 16:28 EST
'Freefall' Excerpt: Too Late To Fix The Biggest Banking Blunder In History?
Reprinted from Freefall by Joseph Stiglitz. Copyright (c) 2010 by Joseph E. Stiglitz. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. The entire series of efforts to rescue the banking system were so flawed, partly because those who were somewhat responsible for the mess--as advocates of deregulation, as failed regulators, or as investment bankers--were put in charge of the repair...
Biggest Banking Blunder; com; excerpts; Fix; freefall; full Feeds; History; HuffingtonPost; lately.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Thu 2010-01-07 19:46 EST
D+7: Shock and Awe
..the burning question, of course, is "will moving your money have an effect?" And by effect, I don't mean making a momentary political statement. I mean making a structural difference to the country's financial system. The answer is yes, and here's how..if the public shifts a small fraction of the nation's core deposit base into these institutions it magnifies the stabilizing effect on this portion of the financial system. That's provided the receiving bank is already in good shape, of course, and isn't saddled with other problems. That's why the listing tool we created for the MoveYourMoney campaign only shows the best of breed, to our best ability to identify who they might be. I
7; awed; com; D; full Feeds; HuffingtonPost; shocks.
zero hedge Tue 2010-01-05 19:26 EST
Roubini Blasts "The Barbarous Relic," Recommends Spam Over Gold
In a headline piece on roubini.com, Nouriel Roubini writes an extended article slamming both gold bugs, and the so-called gold bubble, which he believes is far too volatile, and which, contrary to ever increasing claims to the opposite, will likely not get to the mythical price of $2000/ounce, and instead will head lower. The argument presented, as is widely the case, boils down to the trifecta of i)gold having no industrial utility, ii) no intrinsic value (no associated cash flow streams) and iii) costing an arm and a leg to store. While Roubini's thesis is attractive on the surface (if somewhat Keynesian and thus often reiterated by mainstream Economists), we present some counter arguments to Roubini's thesis.
barbaric relic; gold; Recommends Spam; Roubini blast; Zero Hedge.
Taibblog Mon 2010-01-04 18:02 EST
There's always room for Goldman Sachs (at the SEC)
The Securities and Exchange Commission hired a 29-year-old former employee in Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s business intelligence unit as the first chief operating officer in the agency's enforcement division, according to people familiar with the decision. via SEC unit hires ex-Goldman Sachs worker as chief operating officer -- latimes.com.
Goldman Sachs; room; s; SEC; Taibblog.
Mon 2010-01-04 17:56 EST
Salon.com | Another Goldman executive named to key government post as its profits skyrocket
A Goldman Sachs executive has been named the first chief operating officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division. The market watchdog says Adam Storch, vice president in Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the SEC division.
com; Goldman executive named; key government post; profits skyrocket; Salon.
Wed 2009-12-16 12:30 EST
James Grant Mourns the Loss of the Gold Standard - WSJ.com
...There's no business value in financial safety when the government bails out the unsafe. And by bailing out a scandalously large number of unsafe institutions, the government necessarily puts the dollar at risk...Collateralize the dollar--make it exchangeable into something of genuine value. Get the Fed out of the price-fixing business. Replace Ben Bernanke with a latter-day Thomson Hankey. Find--cultivate--battalions of latter-day Hellmans and set them to running free-market banks. There's one more thing: Return to the statute books Section 19 of the 1792 Coinage Act...
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Wed 2009-11-25 12:11 EST
Geithner Singled Out In TARP Watchdog Neil Barofsky's Scathing Report On AIG Bailout
In its bailout last fall of the insurance giant AIG, a team led by current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner failed nearly every step of the way, according to a scathing report released Monday by a government watchdog. Instead of bargaining with AIG's numerous counterparties to resolve its billions of dollars in souring derivatives contracts, Geithner's team ended up funneling payments for those toxic derivatives to AIG's counterparties at "an amount far above their market value at the time," the report notes.
AIG Bailout; com; full Feeds; Geithner singled; HuffingtonPost; TARP watchdog Neil Barofsky's scathing report.
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis Wed 2009-11-25 12:05 EST
What Is Inflation and How Does One Measure It?
...Inflation is a net expansion of money supply and credit, where credit is marked to market. Deflation is the opposite: a net contraction of money supply and credit, where credit is marked to market...Credit (and credit problems) dwarf monetary concerns at the present...I still expect the US to slip in and out of deflation and recession for years to come just as happened in Japan...banks aren't lending, consumer credit is contracting, credit writeoffs are likely to exceed monetary printing, and symptoms like treasury yields are in generally in agreement...To bail out the banks' poor bets on Dot-Com companies and Latin America in 2001-2002, Greenspan purposely ignited a credit bubble that led to the mother of all housing crashes. In response to the housing bust, the Fed refused to let failed banks go out of business and is attempting to force another credit bubble...However, this is the end of the line. Housing was the bubble of last resort, nothing can come close to the number of jobs created by the global housing bubble. Further attempts to reflate will do nothing but create a currency crisis, crash the economy, and add to future liabilities that cannot be paid back.