February 2011

By William K. Black Freddie Mac made a terse announcement Wednesday in a securities filing about the resignation of its chief operating officer, Bruce Witherell. Freddie said that Witherell resigned "for personal reasons."…

This morning, the U.S. Department of Labor reported a surprisingly low 383,000 first time claims for unemployment insurance. This number, which is the lowest we have seen in two-and-a-half years in the U.S., was well below expectations. It…

By Win Thin The situation remains unsettled in Egypt.  As of this writing, President Mubarak pledged to stay on until his term ends in September, but delegated some authority to VP Suleiman.  Because of his strong connections to…

By Win Thin There is no real news behind the recent underperformance of Portugal bonds, as it appears that markets are simply getting more nervous as the country’s 10-year yields stay above 7% for the fifth straight day today and for 10 of…

A corporation is a societal construct codified into legal existence to further the mutual interests of individuals. A corporation is "an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of the law," according to…

This is from the testimony in the video below: Soldier's wife: I'm dealing with Chase, getting their phone calls, getting their harassment around the clock. My husband Jonathan missed two hours of our daughter's birthday party, because…

In January Steven Hansen observed that, through November, the trade deficit for manufactured goods in 2010 was the equivalent of 1.3 million workers earning the median manufacturing wage in the U.S.

Alice Schroeder, a former Wall Street analyst and the author of the only approved biography of Warren Buffet, has Meredith Whitney's back. She says the macro view that Whitney presents on U.S. states and municipalities is largely correct.…

One serious addendum I made to my 2011 outlook had to do with oil and commodity prices. While I am cautiously optimistic, there are a number of potential pitfalls to a rosy scenario. Here's what I said about oil and commodities:…

Frederick J. Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession (McGraw-Hill, 2009) and "The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond…