Financial News: 2009-12-16

• Steven Pearlstein – Out from under TARP, banks are now free to fail again – washingtonpost.com
• France Matches U.K. With 50 Percent Bonus Tax – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com
• FT.com – End bankruptcy priority for derivatives, repos and swaps
• Bernanke Stonewalls and Prevaricates in Response to Questions by Sen. Bunning – Yves Smith
• FT.com – Innumerate bankers were ripe for a reckoning (Great read. The kernel of this analysis by the ex-Barclays head is that an escalating bonuses in the City bankrupted the likes of HBOS and RBS because when the illusory profits they were predicated on turned to loss, the companies’ capital base was destroyed. Had bonuses not escalated at break neck speed in the last ten years, those banks would have had more capital on hand.)
• A Tax Break for Citigroup Comes With Repayment of Bailout – NYTimes.com (The news in this article is the fact that Citi complained about the tax break Wells received in the Wachovia merger.)
• Ben Bernanke – Person of the Year 2009 – TIME
• FT Alphaville – Tracy Alloway – Moody’s sees sovereign states a-suffering
• Is Austria Set To Join The Honourable Company of PIIGs? | Edward Hugh ("When will the world of officialdom wake up to the fact that when economists warn of impending dangers, this is not done to cause harm, but in an attempt to try to stop more damage being done?" –  Exactly.)
• FT.com – Greek unions to strike over reforms
• “Wake Up, Gentlemen” – Simon Johnson (On Paul Volcker and the likelihood he will get his way in the end.)
• FDIC Approves Giving Banks Reprieve From Capital Requirements – Bloomberg.com
• Macro and Other Market Musings: US vs. Canadian Monetary Policy During the Boom
• Bank Regulation is a Political Economy Problem, Arnold Kling | EconLog
• More on the Late Paul Samuelson, Arnold Kling | EconLog
• My WSJ Article on Samuelson, David Henderson | EconLog

Distraction of the Day: Castle built out of almost 4000,000 popsicle sticks (wow, this thing is big and grand)