from Kevin Williamson at National Review, From Sub-Prime to Sub-Prime: But Fannie Mae, the organized-crime syndicate masquerading as a quasi-governmental entity, has other ideas. Under its new and cynically misnamed “HomeReady” program, borrowers with subprime credit don’t need to show
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from Barron’s, The Road to Ruin by Thomas Donlan excerpts: The U.S. learned nothing from the financial crisis. The biggest problem perceived today in the Obama administration is that the rate of home ownership is at the lowest level since
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The default belief of our economic history of the last 100 years has been an acceptance of the dynamic growth of capitalism punctuated by excesses of market greed that have to be corrected by the singular wisdom of government regulation.
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Some of the most dangerous thinking in public policy happens when the ends are used to justify the means. Our constitution was designed to move slowly; separation of powers was meant to constrain ‘easy’ changes. Many social activists lament this.
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The outcome of the 2008 election centered around the financial collapse that hit just months before the vote. Even the most committed capitalists were taken by surprise at what seemed like a significant failure of capitalism. Outrage was magnified as
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One of the rules of the Dodd Frank Financial Reform bill was the cutting of the bank fees charged for debit cards. I have read much about the financial collapse of 2008 and I do not recall any analyst who
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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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In the Wall Street Journal, Culprits From Beltway Casting- The financial inquiry commission lets a crisis go to waste, (subscription required), takes exception to the partisan conclusion of the commission. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reached a conclusion that
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Ever since Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street declared “Greed is Good” capitalism has been cast in a sinister role that it has yet to overcome. The movie speech was rumored to be taken from a
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We mortals pride ourselves as rational beings, but we act emotionally. We get attached to previous positions, and will discount or filter evidence rather than change our minds. We read the news for confirmation rather than information. We are so
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From StumblingOnTruth Keep the Casinos Open by Clifford S. Asness, Ph.D. Excerpt: Stepping back, nowadays the popular narrative is that this economic crisis was caused by Wall Street and derivatives. It was not. It was a real estate bubble caused
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In a world of uncertainty it is more important to know the odds than to know the facts. In a business bet, if you have a thirty percent chance of winning one hundred dollars or a seventy percent chance of
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Studying the financial bubbles we can see several common characteristics. During the bubble inflation we see markets taken to an extreme by financial greed, but as Walter Sowell so appropriately metaphored on the housing bubble, “blaming the crash on greed
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To blame the mere shortage of cash for the evils caused by incompetence and corruption is the favorite lie of socialists and crony capitalists everywhere. Socialists always say there is no problem of inequality or poverty that can’t be solved
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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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With the clarity of time we can look back at the brink of the collapse that hit us just prior to the last national election. In the midst of the collapse we were stunned and angry, and tended to blame
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“Fannie and Freddie played the political game even more fiercely than their opponents, spending millions of dollars on armies of lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Each company was a revolving door for the powerful in Washington- both Republican and Democrat. Newt
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“In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending (subprime) Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government -subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an
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Wall Street’s financial leaders have been paraded before Congress to explain their efforts to restore stability to our financial system. Obama has turned on the populist spigot to demonize Wall Street to justify bigger taxes and fees and hip shot
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While banks are returning TARP money, some having taken it under duress, Fannie Mae continues to lose money and receive more bailout. In return for such dismal performance executives are getting pay raises and bonuses. It is a growing contention
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