crisis

Firms are being added left and right to the list of companies that cannot be sold short due to the market meltdown. GM, GE and Ford wanted in. Blackrock now has in too. If there is one feature about the new crisis protections put in…

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…

I named my blog "Credit Writedowns" because I anticipated an historic wave of credit writedowns in the global banking system which would lead to a wave of deleveraging, systemic risk, and bank failures -- in short, a massive financial and…

FT Alphaville has two posts today that mirror my view on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. They basically say it was a huge mistake to let Lehman fail. Lehman was, in fact, too big to fail and the blow up in the markets since its failure…

Just in case you thought the crisis was over, I have to remind you that there are still firms out there that are very concerned about their futures. Principal among them is the UK buy-to-let specialist Bradford & Bingley.The word on the…

The Federal Reserve is pulling out all the stops to stop the spread of the financial meltdown contagion that claimed Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG. The latest move is to allow both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank…

Recently I wrote a post on the safety of investment assets in the wake of the Lehman and AIG meltdowns. Even still, retail and individual investors are noticeably nervous about the safety of their funds.Last night on the radio, I heard a…

The meltdown of the world's largest insurer AIG (AIG) makes the stakes of this credit crisis plain to all. In my view, the AIG situation and the subsequent turmoil in financial markets could have been avoided. The markets were clearly on…

Edward Harrison here.In the last post, Marshall commented on the need for the U.S. Presidential candidates to show their mettle in a time of financial volatility. As I write this, the Dow Jones Industrial average has just finished the day…

Marshall Auerback here. This crisis is an audition for the presidency in real time -- and an opportunity for a candidate to step up to the plate. If handled the right way, it could decide the election. If it is treated like another…