Archive for July, 2008
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
I’ve been waiting for thirty years. That’s when I first heard Milton Friedman predict that the real United States Deficit problem was not the one we all talk about. It is the one that will hit the fan when the Treasury assumes the Obligations of Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, ...
Posted in Rating Agencies, Creative Accounting, When Regulation Goes Wrong | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
It has been clear since the outset of the Credit Crisis (see “Mortgage Debt Crisis,” September 10, 2007 post, this blog.) that the investment banks were going to be regulated by the Federal Reserve. Secretary of the Treasury Paulson set a four year deadline to implement his then unspecified “update” ...
Posted in Australia, Games Bankers Play, The Banking Crisis, Polticial Decisions Affecting Banking | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
In the June 24th WSJ (“Maybe It’s Time to Put the Banks and the Investment Banks Back Together.”) Dennis Berman forecasts the demise of investment banks. I could not disagree more with his thesis, that transaction-based institutions have become obsolete, since their ratios of risk to anticipated return have ...
Posted in Creative Accounting, Bank Management, When Regulation Goes Wrong | No Comments »