Mortgage servicers (who in many cases are also the original lenders) have long been saying they can’t simply cut interest rates or reduce principal balances on loans to help people avoid foreclosure, because they’ll get sued by investors in mortgage-related securities. I find it interesting that this argument has been largely absent from the conversation [...]
This had been in the cards for a few months, but now it’s official: Bob Rubin is leaving Citigroup. He joined up in 1999 after a spectacularly successful stint as Treasury Secretary. His presence was supposed to smooth the troubled relationship between the two heads of the just-merged company, John Reed (Citi) and Sandy Weill [...]
I’m usually reticent to publicize my television appearances, but since it was actually pretty entertaining (to participate in, at least) and I doubt many of you will just happen to be watching CSPAN2 tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern, here goes: Close up at the Newseum, with host Frank Bond, Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post, [...]
My latest column is online and in the issue of TIME with half a Star of David and some barbed wire on the cover. It begins. We are in the midst of a cleanup of toxic financial waste that will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, at the very least. The primary manufacturers of [...]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its monthly Employment Situation report this morning, and you’ve surely already seen the headlines about 524,000 in job losses and a 7.2% employment rate. But I thought it would be helpful to go through the basics, as in times like these lots of people who normally ignore the employment [...]
A reader has asked me to link to this article about what price-rent ratios are telling us about the state of the housing market. Price-rent ratio is basically the price of a house divided by the cost of renting an apartment—a measure of whether houses are more expensive than they should be. Here’s a taste: [...]
