Clueless…
Not that I am surprised to see editorial garbage floating around over at Investor’s Business Daily (I read it so you don’t have to), but Rep. John Boehner’s attempt to put Republicans on the...
Author: Dave
Facts and Assertions
Mark Calabria at Cato seems a little annoyed that people like Simon Johnson are hammering Mitch McConnell for his defenses of doing nothing (Brother Scott addresses here). He blames this primarily on: This familiar canard is...
Addressing Goldman’s defenders…
Writing at RealClearMarkets, John Tamny attempts to defend Goldman Sachs against the SEC’s allegations. His defense, aside from the SEC bashing (some of it deserved), seems to hinge on a simplistic Trading 101 description...
Random derivatives musings and the Goldman complaint…
Chris has an interesting post on financial derivatives. Rather than write a lengthy response in the comments, I’ll elaborate here. I could use a little more output anyway. 🙂 Also, if anyone has not...
The Magnetar Trade
I’ll have some additional thoughts on the Goldman Sachs/SEC summed up in a post early next week, but in the meantime, a similar situation with another hedge fund is required reading. A very indepth...
Freedom Scam?
Debbie Schlussel calls Sean Hannity’s Freedom Alliance charity a scam. If a charity is only spending 12% (or less) of the money it brings in to provide the services that the charity was set up to provide...
Shadow Banking Must Read
This is a very informative piece on how the shadow banking system works (i.e. the “repo” markets – as in sale and repurchase). Enjoy
The Weekly Standard pulls a Cully Stimson
Does the name Cully Stimson ring a bell? In 2007 Stimson, in his capacity as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, made a series of bizarre statements on NPR criticizing the law...
Financial Must-Read
Rortybomb takes on shadow banking and why the proposed Volcker Rule falls short. Be sure to follow the links. He’s got a lot of good information and the illustrations are very accessible to a...
Technicalities
John Carney has some interesting commentary on the first day of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings. He writes: A structured credit product—whether its as simple as a mortgage backed security or a complex...
Is inflation in our future?
Greg Mankiw says that it’s not a sure thing, despite the large deficits and rapid growth in our money supply.
Oh boo hoo
Cry me a river. Furthermore, do Wall Street firms complaining that compensation ratios are at historically low levels not realize that the problem is with bankers receiving bonus compensation in the first place?
Putting the cart before the horse (manure)
I do not expect Chicago School economists to favorably review the Obama Administration’s economic policy, but to suggest that those economic policies, not only those which have been passed (The American Recovery and Reinvestment...
Tweak geeks
Was Best Buy really telling customers that their optimization program would increase processor speeds by 200% for $39.99 as this article claims? This is an amusing story about the Geek Squad’s abilty to fuck up...
Don’t blame interest rate policy?
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech to the American Economic Association yesterday. In it, he argued that the Fed’s interest rate policy circa 2003 played virtually no role in the financial crisis and...
A couple of thoughts…
Brother Mark and I generally tend to agree on most constitutional matters, including his September post . I may hold a constitutional viewpoint that tends towards a textualist or originalist interpretation but it is senseless...
Scary
Barry Ritholtz has a table comparing the bull market rallies in 1982 and 2009. One has the support of sound fundamentals and one does not. See for yourselves.
More Blawgging
The Legal Theory Blog takes aim at two of the most meaningless, empty and (unfortunately) frequently used terms in conservative political discourse when constitutional law is involved: strict constructionism and judicial activism.
