Category Archives: Banking

GOP Debate: Bring Back The CNBC Moderators

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GOP Presidential contenders struggled with substantive questions during last week's debate. [Credit: ibtimes.com

GOP Pres­i­den­tial con­tenders fum­bled sub­stan­tive ques­tions dur­ing last week’s debate. [Cred­it: ibtimes.com]

Don­ald Trump wants a piece of the Key­stone Pipeline.

The issue didn’t come up dur­ing last week’s GOP debate, so Trump didn’t have the chance to elab­o­rate on his dec­la­ra­tion that he would have approved the project only if the Cana­di­an com­pa­ny forked over 25 per­cent of its profits.

“I want a piece of the deal,” Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News.  “When I say I want a piece, I’m now rep­re­sent­ing our coun­try the way I would rep­re­sent myself.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Can Greece Slip The Austerity Trap?

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Greek Prime Minister paid tribute to Greek patriots executed by Nazis during WWII. His message to the Germans was clear: we bailed you out, now it's our turn. [Credit: The Guardian]

Greek Prime Min­is­ter paid trib­ute to Greek patri­ots exe­cut­ed by Nazis dur­ing WWII. His mes­sage to the Ger­mans was clear: we bailed you out, now it’s our turn. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

Short­ly after his elec­tion last Sun­day as Greece’s Prime Min­is­ter, Alex­is Tsipras chose not lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Sol­dier in Athens’ Syn­tag­ma Square.  Instead, he went to a war memo­r­i­al in the Athens sub­urb of Kessar­i­ani where Nazi sol­diers exe­cut­ed hun­dreds of Greek Resis­tance fight­ers dur­ing the bru­tal Ger­man occupation.

Tsipras’s mes­sage was not lost on Angela Merkel and oth­er Euro­pean lead­ers: the world for­gave most of Ger­many’s debt; now it’s Greece’s turn. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Fed On The Road To Nowhere

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Economic policymakers may have us, as the Talking Heads put it in their 1985 hit, on the road to nowhere. [Credit: qednet.biz]

Eco­nom­ic pol­i­cy­mak­ers may have us, as the Talk­ing Heads put it in their 1985 hit, on the road to nowhere. [Cred­it: qednet.biz]

For­mer Fed­er­al Reserve Chair­man Ben Bernanke has been called the man who saved the world.  His extra­or­di­nary inter­ven­tions in the fall of 2008 have almost uni­ver­sal­ly been rec­og­nized as hav­ing pre­vent­ed a sec­ond Great Depression.

But a new study by the Swiss-based Bank for Inter­na­tion­al Set­tle­ments (BIS) sug­gests that Bernanke saved the world from a cri­sis that was at least part­ly of his own mak­ing.  Worse, it argues that the course he set and that his suc­ces­sor Janet Yellen and oth­er cen­tral banks are fol­low­ing will pro­duce anoth­er and per­haps graver crisis.

Gov­ern­ment mon­e­tary and fis­cal pol­i­cy­mak­ers have lost their way, the BIS argues.  So bad­ly that they don’t just need a new direc­tion.  They need a new compass.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Student Loans: Punishing People Who Play By The Rules

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President Obama believes that requiring student loans to be repaid is punishing good behavior. [Credit: NPR]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma believes that requir­ing stu­dent loans to be repaid is pun­ish­ing good behav­ior. [Cred­it: NPR]

“If some­body plays by the rules, they shouldn’t be pun­ished for it.” — Pres­i­dent Obama

The Pres­i­dent made this inar­guable state­ment in the course of pro­claim­ing a change in the law gov­ern­ing stu­dent loans.  Hence­forth, mil­lions of peo­ple who bor­rowed for col­lege will have their month­ly pay­ments restruc­tured and, in some cas­es, be entire­ly relieved of the oblig­a­tion to repay their debt.

In the President’s mind, bor­row­ing mon­ey is play­ing by the rules; pay­ing it back is pun­ish­ment. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Elizabeth Warren’s Anti-Progressivism

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Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) preaches progressivism but is her student loan proposal anti-progressive? [Credit: NPR]

Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D‑MA) preach­es pro­gres­sivism but is her stu­dent loan pro­pos­al anti-pro­gres­sive? [Cred­it: NPR]

“This coun­try should not be run for the biggest cor­po­ra­tions and largest finan­cial insti­tu­tions.” Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D‑MA)

To judge from Warren’s record so far, she would be pre­fer that the coun­try be run for the ben­e­fit of its biggest uni­ver­si­ties. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Fed and the Consequences of Bad Predictions

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South Africa's government in recent years voted to jail people who make unauthorized and inaccurate forecasts. Good thing for the Federal Reserve that their bad predictions don't carry consequences. [Credit: University of MN]

South Africa’s gov­ern­ment in recent years vot­ed to jail peo­ple for mak­ing unau­tho­rized and inac­cu­rate weath­er fore­casts. Good thing for the Fed­er­al Reserve that their bad pre­dic­tions don’t car­ry con­se­quences. [Cred­it: Uni­ver­si­ty of MN]

The South African gov­ern­ment in recent years con­sid­ered a bill to jail peo­ple who pub­lished inac­cu­rate and unau­tho­rized fore­casts of severe weather.

Hold­ing peo­ple account­able for their pre­dic­tions seems a bit harsh in this sea­son of pre­dic­tions. But the South Africans do have a point: pre­dic­tions have con­se­quences. That’s as true of pre­dic­tions about the econ­o­my as about the weath­er, some­thing that the Fed­er­al Reserve might do well to pon­der. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

It’s Hard To Say No In That Fair Land of the Si’

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It's been a rough year for Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who narrowly lost an election and was convicted of a crime that may result in his expulsion from the Senate. [Credit: Getty images]

It’s been a rough year for Italy’s Sil­vio Berlus­coni, whose par­ty nar­row­ly lost an elec­tion and who was him­self con­vict­ed of a crime that may result in his expul­sion from the Sen­ate. [Cred­it: Get­ty Images]

“Ah, Pisa , you the scan­dal of the peo­ples of that fair land where si’ is heard.”

– Dante

Washington’s flir­ta­tion with default engen­dered end­less hand-wring­ing about the par­lous state of our polit­i­cal sys­tem. But by Ital­ian stan­dards, Con­gress and the Pres­i­dent are doing just fine.

Last month, while GOP “defund Oba­macare” vig­i­lantes near­ly caused the mas­sive spend­ing and bor­row­ing machine that is our fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to seize up, Italy’s gov­ern­ment served up a sump­tu­ous feast of dys­func­tion, replete with sex scan­dals, res­ig­na­tions of cab­i­net min­is­ters, and an abortive attempt to top­ple a gov­ern­ment inca­pable of gov­ern­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Jon Corzine: Poster Boy for Crony Capitalism?

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President Obama unsuccessfully campaigned for Jon Corzine. Since then, nearly $1 billion in client money disappeared into the ether in a firm Corzine steered into bankruptcy.

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma unsuc­cess­ful­ly cam­paigned for Jon Corzine in 2009. Since then, near­ly $1 bil­lion in client mon­ey dis­ap­peared into the ether from a firm Corzine steered into bank­rupt­cy, but the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion con­clud­ed that Corzine com­mit­ted no crime.

Jon Corzine is not a crook. No, really.

The Jus­tice Department’s inves­ti­ga­tion of the for­mer Wall Street titan, New Jer­sey Gov­er­nor and U.S. Sen­a­tor con­clud­ed last sum­mer that he’d done noth­ing wrong. Or at least noth­ing crim­i­nal. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How TARP Begat Obamacare

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Wall Street titans successfully lobbied Congress for TARP in 2008. Their success made Obamacare possible. [Credit: UPI]

Wall Street titans suc­cess­ful­ly lob­bied Con­gress for TARP in 2008. Their suc­cess made Oba­macare pos­si­ble. [Cred­it: UPI]

Oba­macare goes live on Octo­ber 1, when new­ly-cre­at­ed gov­ern­ment exchanges are to begin sell­ing health insur­ance and enrolling peo­ple in Med­ic­aid. The date car­ries an eerie sig­nif­i­cance. Octo­ber 1 also is the fifth anniver­sary of the Sen­ate vote that made Oba­macare pos­si­ble: a 74–25 vote to cre­ate the Trou­bled Asset Relief Pro­gram, the $700 bil­lion Wall Street bailout bill, more com­mon­ly known as TARP. Con­tin­ue read­ing →