As Spanish antiausterity protesters take to the streets, financial markets switch focus from the nation’s messed-up banks to the wobbly state of its finances
Government
Tax Implications of the Zombie Apocalypse
You may imagine tax law professor’s life as the very picture of tedium: days filled with analyzing arcane regulations and number crunching. And for the most part, this may be true. But every once in a while a tax scholar is …
Should Eminent Domain Be Used to Save Underwater Homes?
The one glimmer of hope in a otherwise disappointing recovery is the recent bottoming out of the housing market. While no one expects home prices to start skyrocketing again anytime soon, it appears that the steady descent they …
LIBOR Scandal: The Crime of the Century?
The latest interest-rate-fixing LIBOR scandal is being heralded as the most egregious in a generation
U.S. Economy Adds Just 80,000 Jobs in June
The Labor Department released its monthly Employment Situation Report this morning, announcing that the economy added 80,000 new jobs in June – slightly less than what economists were predicting, and far too small a number to …
Countrywide VIP Loans Went to Key Lawmakers: Congressional Report
When people ask why banking CEOs haven’t been called to account for the devastating mortgage meltdown that helped plunge the United States into the worst recession in generations, a name that invariably comes up is Angelo Mozilo, …
Is Stockton the Start of a Rash of Municipal Bankruptcies?
State and local borrowing amounts to only a fraction of the national debt, but while the scale may be smaller, the financial crises are much, much closer.
Do “Dark Pools” Threaten the Health of America’s Financial Markets?
NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group – the corporate parents of the America’s biggest stock exchanges – headed to Capitol Hill this week to lobby regulators about a nefarious-sounding phenomenon spreading across Wall Street …
Does Ben Bernanke Have Any Ammo Left?
The Federal Reserve can’t seem to get any love these days. Within hours of the bank’s announcement that it would lower its growth and employment forecasts and continue its “Operation Twist” bond-buying program through the end …
“Not Unless the Earth Gets Struck by the Moon” and Other Highlights from Jamie Dimon’s House Hearing
Jamie Dimon returned to Capitol Hill yesterday for round two of his congressional testimony concerning JPMorgan’s springtime trading fiasco.
Why Undocumented Workers Are Good for the Economy
Tough immigration laws in Arizona and Alabama are costing the states billions of dollars. Business and agricultural leaders have had enough.
Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.: The Public Whipping of Jamie Dimon
It’s one of the few things Congress is demonstrably good at these days: the open flagellation of American businessmen. The unprecedented sums of money doled out by Congress to private industry since 2008 has given Congress the …