Related Articles: The Trouble With Homeownership
-
Why Ken Lewis Gave Up
10/1/2009 12:00:00 AMPeople around Bank of America should have known something was up when its beleaguered CEO, Kenneth Lewis, returned from his August vacation with a beard. For a Southern, buttoned-down banker like Lewis, growing a beard in Aspen is the equivalent of a full-on existential crisis. And so the announcement of his retirement on Wednesday wasn't such a big surprise. (Here's the farewell memo.)
-
The Premature Exit
9/26/2009 12:00:00 AMWilliam Mcchesney Martin, America's longest-serving central banker, once quipped that it's the job of the Federal Reserve to "take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going." His lesson seems to have been a bit too well taken by today's leaders, who lately seem more concerned with the irrational exuberance of tomorrow than the anemic economy of today. Recently German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück asked world leaders to consider coordinated "exit strategies" from the trillions of dollars' worth of stimulus programs enacted in the past year. Soon after, the heads of Australia and South Korea teamed up to offer concrete policies for "unwinding the policies of the crisis." To varying degrees, the U.S., U.K., France, and other major nations have also exhorted the world to start thinking about how to end the loose-money policies of the past year that kept interest rates low and handed free cash to consumers.
-
A Tale of Two Bailouts
9/24/2009 12:00:00 AMI found it tough to get excited about the first anniversary of the Lehman Brothers failure. That's because events in the weeks after Lehman's face-plant were more consequential, and much, much more expensive.
-
Fees At Last!
9/24/2009 12:00:00 AMThe bailout of the financial system, which began about a year ago, was conceived in sin. It would have been wholly unnecessary if highly paid executives in the financial sector—the people who had the most to benefit from the system's survival—had met minimal standards of competence and self-preservation. It's been an expensive debacle, especially for taxpayers, who are being forced to shoulder hundreds of billions of dollars in costs. In a more just world, the banks and Wall Street firms would pay the entire cost of their own bailout through higher taxes, or fees, or industry insurance funds.
-
The Banks Bail Out Uncle Sam ... Not Really
9/22/2009 12:00:00 AMIt seemed like a classic "man bites dog" story. America's banks, having been repeatedly rescued by the government in the past 18 months, were about to turn the tables and rescue the government by lending billions of dollars to the beleaguered Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. So reported The New York Times. Well, it could happen, but it's a long shot, and even then, the banks wouldn't quite be rescuing the FDIC.
-
Wall Street’s New Gilded Age
9/11/2009 12:00:00 AMSince its birth, the United States has grappled with the problem of an over-mighty financial sector. With the exception of Alexander Hamilton, the Founders' vision was of a republic of self-reliant farmers and small-town tradesmen. The last thing they wanted was for New York to become the London of the New World—a mammon-worshiping metropolis in which financial capital and political capital were rolled into one. That was why there was such resistance to creating a central bank, and why—despite two attempts—we have no Bank of the United States to match the Bank of England. That was why populists railed against the adoption of the gold standard after the crash of 1873. That was why there was so much suspicion when the Federal Reserve System was created in 1913. That was why government regulation of Wall Street was so strict from the Depression until the 1970s.
No related partner content.
No related web content.
No related blog content.
No related audio content.
No related video content.
