bailout

Since everyone and his sister can become a bank, why not a central banker cum professor and his wife? Willem Buiter understands the absurdity of granting any financial institution in America bank holding status. He understands this is one…

The issue of GM cannot be divorced from the broader issue of health care. Companies like Honda operate out of countries that made health and retirement benefits a national responsibility. And the perennially high price of gasoline, a…

Just a few moments ago I caught a very interesting post on Alice Cook's site UK Bubble. The gist of the post was that things are falling apart in Ireland very quickly. Given what we saw with Iceland, I have to ask: is Ireland next? I…

Hank Paulson may have created a monster. He has recently said that he does not want to use the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) to buy dodgy assets as he originally billed the U.S. bailout measure. Instead, he wants to inject cash…

Hank Paulson knows he has two months left until he leaves Washington. Therefore, he must feel he needs to pass out as much free cash to his friends in banking and finance before he leaves town. Or, at least so it seems. The latest story I…

For those of you concerned about the Fed's risky behavior, its ballooning balance sheet, and its acceptance of dodgy collateral, well you may be about to see whether the American democracy can allow this unchecked power to continue without…

Apparently, John McCain did even worse than I thought in last night's debate. He and Barack Obama both failed to present a step-by-step plan as to what they were going to do about America's banking crisis. They both merely rehashed old…

Gillian Tett makes a good point in today's FT about the clear benefits of a systemic solution to crisis. Where the UK policy makers were bumbling along until today, they have taken the problem firmly in hand, finally recognizing the…

EU governments have woken up to the need to defend the banking system by guaranteeing all or some of their citizens' bank deposits. After Germany, Ireland and Greece, Denmark is the latest to do so. And Denmark may also be the one country…

Yesterday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to warn him that California was suffering a liquidity problem and needed federal assistance in order to avoid insolvency. Below is the text of…