Political Economy

Last month, Hank Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, was waxing prosaically about covered bonds and their benefits to mortgage markets. From his comments, one gets the impression he sees this a potential solution to preventing a future…

I have a friend who is a very unusual and cosmopolitan blend. Satoshi is a Japanese guy who grew up in the deep south in New Orleans who I met when we worked together at a German bank in the high yield market in London ten years ago. He…

Here's an interesting statistic from the OCRegister in California. What are the twenty wealthiest cities in the United States? Pleasanton, CA tops the list with a median household income of $113,345. See the chart below for the other 19. I…

At the end of last week, the warning came. The Chinese officially warned Hank Paulson et al. that they better get their act together on Fannie and Freddie. The Chinese own a ton of GSE paper and they would be hopping mad to see their…

As the Democratic and Republican Conventions have begun, most Americans are going to get political overload as they are inundated with a media blitz by the U.S. presidential candidates and the inane trivialities of our media-driven…

At first glance, a flair-up in the Caucasus region seems to have little meaning for Americans. But just as the collapse of the subprime mortgage market ultimately came to symbolize the beginning of the end of an American credit system run…

A year into the crisis, it's time to let banks start to fend for themselves -- or at least let their shareholders do the heavy lifting. That's what the President of the Dutch Central Bank Nout Wellink had to say earlier today. Below is my…

With sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) trolling the world for decent places to park their overflowing coffers of cash, the Germans have decided to stop them before they start.The German government has approved legislation that would enable it…

Judgment or Experience?Many American citizens claim our President needs a strategy and a vision for the future. The most common complaints are about a lack of vision on the economy, health care and in our response to terrorism and the war…

Recently, I have become very concerned about the deteriorating geopolitical situation and its likely effects on the global economy. The Georgia-Russia situation produced a response from the U.S. to defend Poland with a missile shield,…