In the days before Christmas, Mary Williams Walsh of The New York Times wrote several important news stories about the bankruptcy of the City of Detroit. She described how the nation’s largest banks have used the bogey man known as
Last week, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) told the financial markets what they wanted to hear, namely that the Federal Reserve is going to moderate massive purchases of Treasury debt and mortgage securities. The news of the “tapering” of
As the year draws to a close, it is worth returning to the US housing sector to see what some of the better analysts are saying about home prices in 2014 and beyond. Generally speaking, most observers believe that US
My friend and fellow monetary historian James Rickards has written an important new book, “The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System.” Jim and I both worked together at Tangent Capital Partners in New York and
Earlier this week I published an interview on Zero Hedge with my friend and mentor David Kotok, founder of Cumberland Advisors, entitled “Bagehot & Deflation: Interview with David Kotok.” The discussion generated a large amount of comment in the financial community, particularly regarding
There are many ways to lose money or wealth as a result of inflation. For most Americans, the most obvious type of inflation is the steady increase in the cost of living caused by reckless monetary policies followed by the
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation released financial data for all federally insured banks as of the end of the third quarter of 2013. The Quarterly Banking Profile, which is an important publication that provides a comprehensive summary
In my last post, “Washington & Wall Street: So Why Can’t We Prosecute the Banksters?,” we started to get into some of the historical antecedents of financial regulation. In this post let’s take the analysis a bit further and start
During the hearings last week regarding the nomination of Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen, the one thing you definitely heard nothing about was why the US government has not pursued fraud prosecutions against the officers and directors of the major
On Thursday Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Janet Yellen appears before the Senate Banking Committee to defend her nomination to succeed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who received the weakest approval ever from the Senate when he was confirmed in February
Last week, the Veterans Airlift Command held their annual dinner and fundraiser in San Diego, CA. A number of organizations that are involved in assisting veterans participated in the event. For those not familiar, the Veterans Airlift Command is a
The initial public offering for Twitter (TWTR) came out Thursday. The stock priced at $26 and subsequently rose as high as $50, then fell back down to a little less than $45. Not bad for a company that has virtually
Last week, the Democrat controlled Senate failed to muster 60 votes to confirm the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to be the new, permanent director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The White House selected Watt to be the
The liberal segments of Congress and the Big Media are pounding away on the idea that “austerity” due to budget cuts is somehow behind the slow performance of the US economy. Never mind that there is little evidence that the
President Obama and Congress continue to wrestle with competing ideas to fix America’s housing crisis, ranging from abolishing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to introducing new regulations for repairing the rickety mortgage-financing system years after it crashed. To understand the
“Janet Yellen would be a perfect candidate for running the Post Office.” -James Grant Financial markets are trembling. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is threatening to put a hold on the nomination of Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve, CNBC
There is a lot of commentary in the press about who is responsible for the government shutdown and the near-miss with respect to extending the debt ceiling. The leading culprit is the Tea Party movement, a bunch of right-thinking Americans
The apparent end of the standoff in Washington over raising the ceiling for the national debt provides all sorts of opportunities for commentators to blame one side or another. More than anything else, Americans are offended by the idea that
Federal Reserve Board Vice Chaiman Janet Yellen has been nominated to replace Chairman Benjamin Bernanke. Many observers support her selection by President Barrack Obama, in large part because she is not Lawrence Summers, the political minion of the disgraced former
This is likely to be a bad week for housing and the economy, but not for the reasons you might suspect. The usual cast of characters in the Big Media wants you to believe that the rise in interest rates
“One man gathers what another man spills.” The Grateful Dead The government shutdown is generating a lot of comment in the press about how the Republicans are somehow responsible for this latest fiscal crisis. Nicholas Kristof of The New York
“I have an activist’s desire to improve people’s lives.” –Bill de Blasio The term of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ends in November 2013. Most New Yorkers are blissfully unaware of the fiscal and political train wreck that awaits
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Claude Raines to Humphrey Bogart “Casablanca” For the past several weeks, financial professionals have listened to a procession of economists predicting that the Federal Reserve would start to
A number of financial observers and members of Congress have stated that a new financial crisis is “inevitable,” this despite the vast body of new laws and regulations put in place since the 2008 financial crisis. Most of these observers
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein The fifth anniversary of the failure of Lehman Brothers is generating a lot of comment, mostly of the sort that blames the largest banks for
