I’ve actually been meaning for a few weeks to write a post about the vagaries of what in the MSM gets noticed in the blogosphere and what does not. Pretty much every half-baked column on the Washington Post op-ed page gets subjected to a full-on linkfest, I was going to write, while the almost invariably [...]

In the news today … … the WSJ joins the hey-look-at-how-Sweden-dealt-with-its-big-financial-crisis parade (which may well have begun right here on this blog): As it happens, the U.S. already seems to be applying some of the key lessons from the Swedish crisis. The government-backed sale of investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. “was handled exactly as the [...]

Who said this in September 2005? The apparent froth in housing markets may have spilled over into mortgage markets. The dramatic increase in the prevalence of interest-only loans, as well as the introduction of other, more-exotic forms of adjustable-rate mortgages, are developments that bear close scrutiny. To be sure, these financing vehicles have their appropriate [...]

From Financial Astrology by David Williams, 1984: Many times during my long business career I have been asked: “How did a hard-boiled purchasing agent like you ever get interested in such an occult subject as astrology?”

Harvard economist and blogging newbie Jeffrey Frankel makes an excellent point about Republican political rhetoric of the past quarter century. Most Republican presidential candidates say on the campaign trail that (a) they favor smaller government and (b) cutting tax rates increases revenue. Put these two together and the only possible conclusion, Frankel writes, is that: [...]

My new column is in the issue of Time with a star-spangled pope on the cover and online here. It begins: Financial regulation is usually born of financial disaster. The Panic of 1907–during which several big New York City banks actually did fail–led to the creation of the Federal Reserve. The Great Depression, unleashed by [...]

I’ve got the Senate Banking Committee hearing about the Bear Stearns deal on in the background. Life’s too short to liveblog it. But Chris Dodd’s attempt to get somebody to admit that the Fed had ordered that the original sale price be just $2 elicited some interesting responses. Treasury Undersecretary Robert Steel said that, “There [...]

Bond market kingpin Bill Gross’s monthly screed is out, and as usual it’s got lots of interesting insights and lots of passages that don’t entirely make sense. Anyway, this may be my favorite part: I’ve had a famous picture of J.P. Morgan on my office wall for 25 years. Even now, the old man seems [...]

A very nice analogy from one Chris Cook: The subject of “peak oil” is usually misrepresented to mean “oil is running out” but in fact means that, “while there may be plenty of oil in the ground, there is a maximum (peak) level of production which we may even have reached”. Peak oil has gradually [...]