It’s late, I’m tired and I wish I hadn’t noticed this from the WSJ. But trooper that I am, here is some news that should stoke the fires in Congress. It seems that AIGFP structured tax deals to help banks avoid some taxes in their home countries. Naturally, these are the same banks that were […]
Archive for March 23rd, 2009
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Disquieting News From Across The Pond
Posted by Tom Lindmark on March 23rd, 2009
The world didn’t quit spinning today despite all of the attention paid to the Geithner Plan. Some disquieting news came from Europe. Germany, the big dog of the EU is looking at a 7% contraction of GDP this year. The country’s dependency on exports is having a telling effect. The country may be on the […]
My Last Thought On PPIP-I Promise
Posted by Tom Lindmark on March 23rd, 2009
The spin on this program was that the government wanted to leverage their scarce funds with private capital. There is precious little private capital going into these deals. What’s really going on is the administration leveraging its way around Congressional review and approval of the expenditure of a trillion dollars. That’s why they’re using what […]
PPIP Overload: Things You Don’t Want To Know About
Posted by Tom Lindmark on March 23rd, 2009
Well, I did it. I made myself read the PPIP white paper and overview. At the risk of sending you screaming into the night, here are a couple observations. First, it’s complicated and I suspect that the CNBC talking heads have no real idea how much so. Governments are very skilled at putting together stuff like this […]
The Math Behind The Geithner Plan
Posted by Tom Lindmark on March 23rd, 2009
Here is a useful post on the math of the Geithner Plan. It comes via Marginal Revolution. As Henry Blodgett said this afternoon: Tim Geithner may finally have done it. Done what, you ask? Figure out how to transfer hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to insolvent banks and Wall Street without the taxpayer screaming bloody […]
More On Breaking Up The Banks
Posted by Tom Lindmark on March 23rd, 2009
Back on the soapbox about breaking up the banks. At The Baseline Scenario, Simon Johnson restates his case for restructuring the banking sector: If Secretary Geithner’s scheme works, we draw the lesson that our banks became too big and we aim to make them smaller relative to the economy moving forward. The regulatory agenda currently […]
The Effect Of Quantitative Easing On The Bond Market
Posted by Tom Lindmark on March 23rd, 2009
If you have an interest in what impact the Fed’s plan to actively engage in quantitative easing may have on the market I suggest that you read this post at Across the Curve. John Jansen, the author, opened a discussion on the subject based on a comment from one of his regular readers. There is […]
