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The Bailout To End All Bailouts by Robert B. Reich, tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com | September 24, 2008
Bailing out Wall Street's bad debts when millions more Americans can't pay their bills is like bailing out a rowboat springing more leaks while the ocean is rising. Many of the average taxpayers being asked to take on Wall Street's bad loans are the same people whose incomes are dropping, which means they're struggling to pay their debts and potentially creating even more bad loans. read more »Wall Street Free Traders Become Wall Street Protectionists by Dean Baker, tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com | September 24, 2008
As Wall Street free traders, these folks argued that we should get the government out of the economy. They wanted to remove the trade barriers that obstructed the free flow of goods and services (especially goods). If this meant that workers had to lose their jobs, so be it. Because they were nice guys, they promised benefits like job training and wage insurance. But now the Wall Street crew no longer wants to leave things to the market. read more »Congress Is Resisting Now, But Wall Street Will Do Anything to Get Its Way by Nomi Prins, alternet.org | September 24, 2008
The Bush-Paulson trillion-dollar payoff scheme won't save Wall Street from the mess it created. read more »Trust But Verify by James K. Galbraith & William K. Black, The Nation | September 24, 2008
Congress must now impose conditions to protect the public, the national interest and, not least, the interests of the next administration. Herewith a short list. read more »Goldman Sachs Socialism by William Greider, The Nation | September 24, 2008
Wall Street put a gun to the head of the politicians and said, Give us the money — right now — or take the blame for whatever follows. The audacity of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's bailout proposal is reflected in what it refuses to say: no explanations of how the bailout will work, no demands on the bankers in exchange for the public's money. read more »An Inadequate Case for the Bailout by The New York Times, The New York Times | September 24, 2008
If taxpayers do not share in the potential profits from a bailout, someone else will. The Federal Reserve announced that it is relaxing rules that require investors who take large stakes in banks to submit to longstanding regulations on transparency and managerial control. Relaxing the rules invites more of the same type of opacity and risk-taking into banking that caused many of today’s financial problems. Taxpayers are being asked to buy up banks’ junky assets, with little expectation of return. At the same time, private equity firms are being invited to make what are likely to be highly profitable investments in the same banks. read more »The Shadow Banking System is Unravelling by Nouriel Roubini, Financial Times | September 24, 2008
The first stage was the collapse of the entire conduits system once investors realized the toxicity of its investments and its very short-term funding seized up. The next step was the run on the big US broker-dealers: Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. The third stage was the collapse of other leveraged institutions that were both illiquid and most likely insolvent given their reckless lending: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG and more than 300 mortgage lenders. The fourth stage was panic in the money markets. The next stage will be a run on thousands of highly leveraged hedge funds. read more »The Next Dominos to Fall by Jason Snyder, open.salon.com | September 24, 2008
The next component of the financial system to go into complete meltdown mode will likely be hedge funds. This will matter to you even if you don't know what a hedge fund is. read more »Bank Lobbyists Laugh At Congressional Dems by David Sirota, OurFuture.org | September 24, 2008
In a story about Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd's admirable efforts to amend bankruptcy laws and put limits on executive compensation (ie. what should be the absolute minimum in any bailout), Roll Call reports that the financial industry is openly laughing at him and fellow Democrats: read more »A Financial PATRIOT Act by Andrew Ross Sorkin, iht.com | September 24, 2008
With the passage of the proposed bailout package, the Treasury secretary — whoever that may be in a few months — would be vested with perhaps the most incredible powers ever bestowed on one person over the economic and financial life of the United States. It is the financial equivalent of the Patriot Act, after 9/11. read more »
The Latest
Chris Dodd, Top Democrat, Fights Against Elizabeth Warren , Huffington Post | August 13, 2010
Warren, Axelrod Meet as Consumer Agency Decision Looms, blogs.wsj.com | August 13, 2010
Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, a top White House candidate to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is apparently no longer on the outside looking in.
Thursday, she was on the inside – literally – meeting with White House officials, including senior advisor David Axelrod. more »
Study Looks at Tax Cut Lapse for Rich, The New York Times | August 11, 2010
The Fed Gives Up On Tightening, blogs.reuters.com | August 11, 2010
The big market reaction following today’s FOMC statement took place in the 10-year Treasury bond, where yields sank to 2.77% right after the statement came out, from 2.82% beforehand. more »
Fed Announces Plan to Buy Treasury Debt, Spur Growth, mcclatchydc.com | August 11, 2010
S. Carolina Takes Stimulus Money, The New York Times | August 11, 2010
State Aid Bill Breezes Into Law, dyn.politico.com | August 11, 2010
Included is $10 billion to preserve teaching jobs in the new school year, and $16.1 billion to help states cover their Medicaid payments for the first six months of 2011. more »
$26-Billion Aid Package for States Becomes Law, Los Angeles Times | August 11, 2010
Freddie Mac Seeks More Aid Amid Loss , The Wall Street Journal | August 10, 2010
Freddie Mac reported a second-quarter net loss of $4.7 billion and asked the U.S. Treasury to provide a $1.8 billion infusion, raising the government's tab for its rescue of the mortgage-finance company to $63.1 billion. The second-quarter loss, the 11th in the last 12 quarters, compared with a year-earlier net profit of $300 million.
Fewer Homeowners Are Underwater, But Only Because They’re Being Foreclosed Upon , wonkroom.thinkprogress.org | August 10, 2010
According to new data released today by the real estate website Zillow, fewer homeowners are underwater on their mortgage — those who owe more in payments than their house is currently worth — than were underwater last year. In 2009, 23 percent of homeowners were submerged, which has dropped to 21.5 percent today.
