NYT: “It’s the Economy, Girlfriend”
We put two and two together and figured out that it was the economy, not us. When guys in banking are going through this, they can’t handle a relationship. – Megan Petrus, a lawyer who broke up with her banker…
Academic Economists Reckon With Their Cluelessness
But if a doctor repeatedly deemed patients to be healthy that were soon found to have Stage Four cancer that was at least six years in the making, the doctor would be a likely candidate for a malpractice suit. Yet…
The End Of Freedom For American Banks
I would like to see a regulatory system aimed at insulating the real economy from financial innovation insofar as that is possible. That may require limits on the freedom of action of commercial banks. – Robert Solow, 1987 Nobel Prize…
Madoff Investment Securities Revealed As “Stunning Fraud”
Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions. – Andrew Calamari (subscription required), Associate Director of Enforcement, SEC New York Office It’s all just one big lie…. basically, a giant Ponzi scheme. – Bernard Madoff allegedly…
The Human Consequences Of The Bust
Daily life in these developments seems a bit post-cataclysmic. Children play on elaborate but empty playgrounds. They walk their dogs past rows of shiny houses that have never been lived in. Voices echo up and down the block. Unfinished houses…
SEC Tries To Intimidate Short Sellers
What do I think is really going on here? I think that regulators are very, very concerned about the collapse of the stocks of major US financial institutions and are grasping at straws as to what to do about it….
IndyMac Depositors Line Up To Get Their Money
In a modern financial system, nothing is more frightening than a run on the bank. – Tom Petruno, “When faith is frayed”, July 12, 2008, LA Times As most of you know by now, the Federal Government closed and siezed…
What Ever Happened To Thrift?
The people who created this country built a moral structure around money. The Puritan legacy inhibited luxury and self-indulgence. Benjamin Franklin spread a practical gospel that emphasized hard work, temperance and frugality. Millions of parents, preachers, newspaper editors and teachers…
Ken Heebner Is The Best Mutual Fund Manager In The World Right Now
How do you explain genius? Ken just sees things other don’t. – Douglass Pratt, a former mutual fund manager who worked with Heebner He saw something the rest of us didn’t. That’s Ken – that’s always been Ken. – John…
The Wisdom Of John Mackey
I want to recommend to everybody John Mackey’s excellent commencement speech delivered at Bentley College on Saturday May 17, 2008, recently posted to his Whole Foods blog. Mackey, the Founder and CEO of Whole Foods (WFMI), was a college dropout:…