What the Mortgage Deal Reveals About The Obama Administration
Edward Harrison here. I was reading Yves’ excellent post on The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement and I thought about a post I wrote a year ago on what this was all about. I am re-posting this post verbatim below but I just want to say a few words first....
“Summer” Rerun: Why Big Capital Markets Players Are Unmanageable
This post first appeared on July 8, 2009
John Kay comes perilously close to nailing a key issue in his current Financial Times comment, "Our banks are beyond the control of mere mortal" in that he very clearly articulates the problem very well but then draws the wrong conclusion:
Summer Rerun: Geithner Plan Smackdown Wrap
This post first appeared on February 10, 2009
I cannot recall a major US policy initiative being met with as much immediate revulsion as the so-called Geithner plan. Even the horrific TARP, which showed utter contempt for Congress and the American public was in some ways less troubling. Paulson demanded $700 billion, nearly $200 billion...
Summer Rerun: Why we shouldn’t use monetary policy to stimulate aggregate demand
Hi all. Here’s another summer re-run I wanted to post at NC, but this time from Marshall Auerback. As you know, there has been a heated debate amongst economists as to what policy makers should do if anything about the loss of jobs and the attendant fall in demand and output in the wake of...
Summer Rerun: Why we shouldn’t use monetary policy to stimulate aggregate demand
Hi all. Here’s another summer re-run I wanted to post at NC, but this time from Marshall Auerback. As you know, there has been a heated debate amongst economists as to what policy makers should do if anything about the loss of jobs and the attendant fall in demand and output in the wake of...
Summer Rerun: Geithner and Summers as Obama’s Cheney and Rumsfeld
Readers new to this site may be unfamiliar with Yves’ summer rerun series, in which she reprises vintage NC posts that have stood the test of time. I would like to add a post of mine from Credit Writedowns to the lot. The recent New York Times piece from Joe Nocera on Sheila Bair is...
“Summer” Rerun: Why You Should Hate the Treasury Bailout Proposal
This post first ran September 21, 2008
A mere two weeks ago, the Fannie/Freddie rescue was called “the mother of all bailouts” by some commentators. If the plans of the Administration come to fruition, it will shortly be surpassed by the $700 billion mortgage rescue plan proposed by Hank Paulson late last week.
The increase of the...
‘Summer’ Rerun: Buiter Provokes Wrath at Jackson Hole, Says Fed Too Close to Wall Street
This post first appeared on August 24, 2008
Go Willem Buiter! The London School of Economics prof and former Bank of England and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development official has been saying for some time that the Fed suffers from "cognitive regulatory capture" and has been far too responsive to the needs of Wall...
“Summer” Rerun: Welcome Willem Buiter and Mohamed El-Erian to the Banana Republic Club!
The time has come to announce the formation of the Banana Republic Club. Membership is open, with the sole requirement being that nominees correctly discern behaviors in advanced economies that resemble those of corrupt developing countries, which for sake of convenience are referred to as...“Summer” Rerun: CNBC Publicizes This Blog
This post first appeared on June 8, 2008
I suppose I should be pleased, since readers wrote to inform me that Charles Gasparino of CNBC made mention of us on Friday (this clip, starting at 1:30) for our coverage of Lehman. However, I would have been happier if the statements made were correct. It's remarkable...
“Summer” Rerun: MBIA Lies in Attack on New York Times
This post first appeared on June 19, 2008
Let's start with some admissions: Gretchen Morgenson, one of two authors (the other is Vikas Bajaj) of a takedown piece on MBIA yesterday, has some detractors in the blogsphere because, frankly, her understanding of credit instruments leaves something to be desired. Her critics overlook her...
“Summer” Rerun: Should the Fed Be Independent?
This post was first published on June 6, 2008
An article in today's Wall Street Journal, "Insider Joins Critics of the Fed, Faulting Credit-Crisis Programs," discusses at some length a recent speech by Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker in which he took issue with some of the Fed's recent financial services industry rescue efforts. The...
