In case you had any doubts about the objectivity or even reasonableness of the credit rating agencies, consider this. From the WSJ: In a reversal in its evaluation of a clutch of mortgage bonds backed by commercial property, Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday raised the ratings on several securities it had downgraded a week ago. […]
Archive for July 21st, 2009
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A Surprising Twist To Liar Loan Securitizations
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 21st, 2009
Here is another one of those academic papers examining the mortgage crisis that seem to be sprouting everywhere. This one concentrates on low doc and no doc loans and comes up with some conclusions you would expect and a somewhat surprising finding. The study was done by some academics at Columbia and focused on one […]
Pimco’s El-Erian: Bernanke Is Signaling Less Fed Activism
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 21st, 2009
Commenting on Fed Chairman Bernanke’s testimony today, Pimco’s Mohamed El-Erian had this to say: By virtue of its greater flexibility and responsiveness, the Fed ended up assuming the main role in responding to the crisis, with fiscal and other agencies (including the FDIC) playing important support roles. It is now the turn of the fiscal […]
Barofsky’s Scary Numbers
Posted by Tom Lindmark on July 21st, 2009
By now you have no doubt heard about Neil Barofsky’s claim during a Congressional hearing that the potential for government support arising from the various rescue programs could reach $23.7 trillion. Mr. Barofsky is the special inspector general for the TARP program. Floyd Norris does a good job of putting the numbers in perspective in […]
