Wednesday 4th December
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The Stalinist Era of Consumer Protection
Written on 12 Dec, 2011 at 15:58
Now, when right in front of our eyes, the banking lobby is pushing to make the only federal agency whose role is to protect consumers entirely toothless, once again we're failing to make our voices heard. I know this... (Continue reading)
Attitudes on Wall Street: Dear God, Give Me Strength
Written on 4 Oct, 2011 at 6:03
Brancaccio asked about whether these Wall Street types recognized that bonuses are usually paid on profits, but that profits are "radically down," and Bethany replied that they don't. She said that there's a widespread belief that "it wasn't my fault,... (Continue reading)
Mandelman’s Overview of Economic News That Matters
Written on 3 Jun, 2011 at 6:03
So, there you have it... a veritable cornucopia of bad news... and all of it from CNBC, a cable news channel that normally broadcasts nothing but bull... markets. Bull markets... that's what I meant. But, it's getting impossible... (Continue reading)
The Luckiest Bankers the World Has Ever Seen! And They’re Ours! Yay!
Written on 3 Jun, 2011 at 3:35
Assuming you were such an adept trader of securities that you had a 70% probability of making money on any given trading day, which would, by the way, pretty much make you a God of Wall Street... the odds that... (Continue reading)
THEY ONCE WERE LENDERS – Understanding government’s failure to stop bankers OR scammers from destroying homeowners.
Written on 25 Apr, 2011 at 21:47
And, to add insult to injury, our government has stood by obtuse and witless as these same banks have been permitted to lie, mislead, abuse, disrespect, malign and outright torture homeowners trying to apply for a government program funded by... (Continue reading)
Watch Which Words You Use With Republicans – They Could Take Their Toys and Go Home
Written on 18 Dec, 2010 at 7:52
The Republican's version of the report is said to be a whopping 13 pages long, and is expected to place the blame for the crisis squarely on the shoulders of poor people who wanted to buy houses, and how some... (Continue reading)
MANDELMAN’S MONTHLY MUSELETTER – VERSION 8.0
Written on 30 Jun, 2010 at 9:05
This month in Mandelman's Monthly Museletter: 1. Oregon Woman Accuses Vice President Al Gore of Sexual Misconduct in 2006. 2. Fear Deflation, Pray for Inflation. 3. The latest from Nobel Prize Winning Economist, Paul Krugman. 4. HAMP's UP Program... (Continue reading)
Senate Investigation Says Banks Caused Crisis, Not Borrowers
Written on 22 Apr, 2010 at 13:45
As I've said what feels like a million times in a million different ways... it wasn't the borrowers, it was the banks, and what caused the crisis was that the banks broke the bond market... and it remains broken to... (Continue reading)
Books I’ve Loved Reading: Freefall by Joseph Stiglitz
Written on 8 Apr, 2010 at 11:08
He points out, for example, that when you talk about a group that borrowed too much on the assumption that housing prices would never fall and sub-prime loans presented no risk, you're talking about the Wall street crowd. Some... (Continue reading)
Obama’s Plan to Create Jobs – I’m sorry, what am I missing here?
Written on 11 Dec, 2009 at 6:25
He also said that he and congressional Democrats took "a series of difficult steps" to try to stabilize the financial system and pull the economy out of a deep recession, and I guess that it probably was difficult to do... (Continue reading)
Cioffi & Tannin, Bankers That Broke The World, Part 2
Written on 13 Oct, 2009 at 2:49
From the beginning, the banking lobby has tried to blame this crisis on everyone but the banks. It was the banking lobby that started the P.R. campaign that blamed borrowers... then they blamed mortgage brokers... then sub-prime lenders... everyone... (Continue reading)
101 Pages of Barackracy: Obama’s Regulatory Reforms
Written on 19 Jun, 2009 at 20:42
It’s been over a week since President Obama presented his plans to reform the regulatory structure of our financial markets. As someone who writes about such things, I knew many of my readers would expect me to watch the speech... (Continue reading)
Wells Fargo’s Surprising Profits? Time to Go Short…
Written on 14 Apr, 2009 at 4:11
Oh, hell... the fact is, tying the amount of "credit extended" to TARP funds is ridiculous. The TARP funds were invested by the government to recapitalize banks, not to provide funds that would be lent to borrowers, and making statements... (Continue reading)