Tag Archives

Archive of posts published in the tag: Barney Frank

Discretionary Failure

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was enacted to prevent another financial crisis, but it misdiagnosed the crisis and enacted the wrong remedies.  People are now waking up to the fact that the bill does

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Whose Property is It?

Somewhere in the debate on inheritance or death taxes lies the core of the difference in the two parties. The difference is not in which party favors the rich over the common man, which party feels entitled to privilege at

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Lost With the Wrong Map

If you have the cue ball and just one other ball on the pool table lined up for shot in the corner pocket, AND you are a reasonable competent pool player then you can determine with some degree of accuracy

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Financial Regulation: The Solution is the Problem

George Melloan writes in The Wall Street Journal,  The Lessons of Basel’s Bean Counters Summarized: In 1988 the banking regulators from  20 leading industrial nations of the International Monetary Fund met in Switzerland and created Basel I to create a

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Understanding the Meltdown

(this was published previously in the Macon Telegraph) Being in the middle of a record economic crisis presents a rare learning opportunity.  Several books are worthwhile for those seeking to understand what just happened. Too Big to Fail by Andrew

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A Moral Culprit

There are those who see our financial problem as a moral failure. In one sense it is, but not in the sense those who wish to frame it in moral tones believe. To blame greed for the meltdown is simplistic

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Unlimited Fannie Mae

In several past postings reviewing the recent financial meltdown, I have noted the pivotal role played by Fannie Mae. A toxic mix of arrogance and incompetence infected Wall Street.  Bad political, monetary, and tax policy inflated the housing market bubble. 

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