The micromanagement of GM and Chrysler by the government began in earnest today. In front of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee the heads of the two auto makers were called to task for their treatment of dealers. From Politico.com here is a sample of the hands off Obama policy: “It’s a nationwide […]
Archive for June 3rd, 2009
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Thoughts On Banks From IRA
Posted by Tom Lindmark on June 3rd, 2009
I just scanned Institutional Risk Analyst’s latest post and it has two pretty interesting comments. One pertains to their projection for bank closures/consolidations and the other to GMAC. With regard to bank closures they point out that the small and medium sized banks have not had the benefit of the subsidies extended to the large […]
Elizabeth Warren Has Gaps In Her Grasp Of TALF
Posted by Tom Lindmark on June 3rd, 2009
Linda Lowell of HousingWire does quite a job of knocking the stuffing out of Elizabeth Warren’s criticisms of the TALF. Bottom line, she makes a very clear case for the head of the Congressional Oversight Panel’s less than complete understanding of the securities markets and how the TALF functions. It’s long but if you have […]
Was Bernanke Trespassing On Treasury’s Fiscal Turf?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on June 3rd, 2009
Felix Salmon took umbrage with some of Bernanke’s testimony this morning. He seems to think that the Fed Chairman is stepping on Treasury’s turf. This is reasonable enough: after having hit the zero bound, there’s not much which can be said about monetary policy, and fiscal policy is going to be the main driver of […]
German Chancellor Merkel Calls Out The Central Bankers
Posted by Tom Lindmark on June 3rd, 2009
This seems to be central bank day. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, was out with a speach today that takes the Fed, Bank of England and European Central Bank to task for their recent adventures. From the WSJ Real Time Economics blog, here are the translated excerpts of her speach relative to central bankers: Also […]
Some Want More Government In Housing
Posted by Tom Lindmark on June 3rd, 2009
Apparently there is something addictive in the milk dispensed from the federal teat. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for three supposedly private enterprise sorts of organizations arguing in favor of continued and ,yes, even more federal support for Fannie and Freddie. At a hearing planned this afternoon before the House subcommittee […]
Bernanke To Congress: You Can’t Go On Like This Forever
Posted by Tom Lindmark on June 3rd, 2009
Ben Bernanke is holding forth in front of the House Budget Committee. It’s a lot of the same old stuff but of some interest was his comments about fiscal discipline (you remember what that is don’t you?). You wouldn’t want to say that he put a shot across the bow but he did at least […]
