This is one of those articles that makes you ask, what have they been doing. From the WSJ: The Securities and Exchange Commission, hoping for a better shot at catching the next big fraud, is working on plans to set up teams of specialists who focus on specific kinds of wrongdoing. Robert Khuzami, the former […]
Archive for April 28th, 2009
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Obama Administration Lands A Punch-Banks Counterpunch
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 28th, 2009
The stress test exercise seems to be blowing up in the faces of everyone. Banks are disputing the criteria, lobbying for more time to raise capital and generally trying to discredit the whole exercise. From the NYT: As Washington pushes banks to mend their finances, the banks are pushing back. Emboldened by newfound profits and […]
An Historian’s View Of The Banking Crisis
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 28th, 2009
Bloomberg has an interview with historian Liaquat Ahamed that’s pretty intriguing. He discusses the similarities between the banking crisis of the 1930’s and today. Ahamed: Under Herbert Hoover, Congress created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which was designed to provide loans to banks. It started in 1932, and it provided about $1.5 billion in loans that year. Then […]
Modifying Investors’ Loans Isn’t In Their Best Interest
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 28th, 2009
Barbara Kiviat has a post up on the Curious Capitalist that discusses the new rules regarding second mortgages under Obama’s housing rescue plan. It’s a good post with some interesting thoughts beyond the new regs. One idea she throws out concerns investor owned properties: First, the Administration continues to ignore the problems caused by investor-owned […]
What Constitutes A Good Tax Regime?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 28th, 2009
Connor Clarke notes today that Arlen Specter is a flat tax supporter and posts an example of what Specter’s flat tax return might look like as well as his own thoughts on the flat tax. I like the progressive income tax, so I find the flat tax unappealing for moral reasons. But I also find […]
GMAC/Chrysler Financial Merger: What’s The End Game?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 28th, 2009
The auto bailout/nationalization get weirder/scarier with each day. It seems now that plans are afoot to combine GMAC and Chrysler Financial. From the WSJ: The likeliest outcome is that Chrysler Financial’s loan portfolio will be folded into GMAC, which would then handle dealer financing for both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, these people said. Such an arrangement […]
The Last Thing You Need To Read About Swine Flu
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 28th, 2009
So you don’t have to waste your time reading anything more about swine flu for at least the rest of the week, here is an excellent article from Slate. I like how he puts the number into perspective though the use of the term “kill rate” gives me the creeps. All this affects the apparent […]
