naked capitalism Wed 2009-10-14 12:03 EDT

New York Times: Missing in Action on Health Insurance Lobby Duplicity

...the dubious reporting object lesson is the New York Times, on what is supposedly its most prized beat: Washington DC political reporting. The Times ran two articles that verged on sycophantic in its coverage of the health insurance industry as it moved its chess pieces on the health care reform game board. The Times acted as close to a PR outlet...The Financial Times reports tonight that the health insurance industry, after its great show of making nice to the Obama administration, backstabbed it on the eve of a key vote. Do we see any coverage of this duplicity in the US media, much less the New York Times? [excellent commentary by kevin de bruxelles ``Washington General'' and DownSouth ``political theater, perfect dictatorship, and junkyard dogs'']

action; Health Insurance Lobby Duplicity; missing; naked capitalism; New York time.

The Guardian World News Mon 2009-10-12 10:02 EDT

Ex-Wall Street financiers face criminal action

Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin's private jottings show concerns about 'blow up risk' to investors...Tannin and his boss, Ralph Cioffi, ran two funds holding $1.4bn of clients' funds that collapsed in July 2007, an event widely viewed as the first clear signal of America's sub-prime mortgage crisis and the global credit crunch. The meltdown of these funds sparked a chain of events that contributed to the demise of Bear Stearns, an 85-year-old Wall Street institution, in early 2008. They have been charged by US prosecutors with defrauding customers by hiding the true condition of investments as prospects steadily darkened.

Ex-Wall Street financiers face criminal action; Guardian World News.

Thu 2009-10-08 17:10 EDT

Recovering from Neoliberal Disaster - Why Iceland and Latvia Won't (and Can't) Pay

Michael Hudson

Can Iceland and Latvia pay the foreign debts run up by a fairly narrow layer of their population? The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings. Resentment is growing not only toward those who ran up these debts -- Iceland's bankrupt Kaupthing and Landsbanki with its Icesave accounts, and heavily debt-leveraged property owners and privatizers in the Baltics and Central Europe -- but also toward the neoliberal foreign advisors and creditors who pressured these governments to sell off the banks and public infrastructure to insiders. Support in Iceland for joining the EU has fallen to just over a third of the population, while Latvia's Harmony Center party, the first since independence to include a large segment of the Russian-speaking population, has gained a majority in Riga and is becoming the most popular national party. Popular protests in both countries have triggered rising political pressure to limit the debt burden to a reasonable ability to pay...

Iceland; Latvia; Neoliberal Disaster; pay; recover.

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis Wed 2009-08-26 16:00 EDT

Critically Under-Capitalized Banks Direct Result Of "Wonderful Chain of Stupidity"

Michael Shedlock

Last week the Wall Street Journal ran an article about how trust securities sank Guaranty Financial Group and six family-controlled Illinois banks in early July. Please consider In New Phase of Crisis, Securities Sink Banks. Federal officials on Thursday were poised to seize Guaranty Financial Group Inc., in what would be the 10th-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Guaranty's woes were caused by its investment portfolio, stuffed with deteriorating securities created from pools of mortgages originated by some of the nation's worst lenders. Delinquency rates on the holdings have soared as high as 40%, forcing write-downs last month that consumed all of the bank's capital. Guaranty is one of thousands of banks that invested in such securities, which were often highly rated but ultimately hinged on the health of... Security losses are a non-operating item and are listed after pre-tax operating income on the call report. This is very unusual and possibly reveals another cancer hiding on many banks balance sheets. those garbage trust-preferred securities problems are on top of the widely expected fallout from commercial real estate problems affecting small to medium-sized regional banks. Thus, banking woes are much deeper in many areas than either the FDIC or Fed is admitting.

Capitalized Banks Direct Result; Criticizes; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; Stupid; Wonderful Chain.