bailout

The deed is done. Despite huge voter disquiet about the terms of the bailout package, Congress has passed the bill and it awaits the U.S. President's signature. The house vote was 263 to 171, with a huge number of Congress members moving…

Update: While the Irish were following the Swedish script, it became clear to me shortly after I wrote this that the bank debt guarantees were not a good idea. This post from Willem Buiter explains it best.  Along with American and…

The House of Representatives in the United States has defeated the proposal originally crafted by U.S. Treasury Secretary to help bail the U.S. out of financial difficulties. My hope is that Congress can get to business and craft a…

I have said before that a systemic response is necessary to deal with the present banking crisis in the United States. This crisis has nothing to do with subprime assets and little to do with things like predatory lending. Those are issues…

The NY Times has a story on how yesterday's bailout deal failed. This is an insider's tale with blow by blow detail. It is a fascinating view into how the U.S. conducts government policy. Below is a snippet from the post and a link to the…

While you have your eye firmly peeled on the financial mess splayed in front of you, other industries are busy setting themselves up to profit from close business ties to the Bush Administration before a new Sherriff comes to town.The…

I have taken my time to let the basics of the Paulson Plan seep in before I rushed to judgment. But, the time to judge has come and the plan comes up short on all counts. His plan is geared more toward Wall Street and protecting the…

This is a topic I first broached in May. The United States has a mortgage problem in that house prices have fallen so much and the financial sector is so leveraged that the U.S. faces systemic banking risk from a vicious circle in the…

Yesterday I pointed out that today's global banking crisis has some historical precedents worthy of comparison. In particular, I looked at the Japanese bailout schemes from their housing bubble to see if there was anything there to learn.…

Update: Also see my list of Bankrupt global financial institutions. Recently, the pace of writedowns by major money center banks has increased. UBS announced today it wrote down $19 billion. Deutsche Bank announced today it wrote down $4…