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The Rise and Rise of Jamie Dimon

So the only way to rescue the country from another Great Depression was to ensure that the banks that had caused the crisis would become wealthier and more powerful?

Strategies for Banking Reform: The Snowball Effect

Why should we have any hope for financial industry reform? Both the conservative Bush Administration and the 'liberal' Obama Administration agreed to bailout Wall Street at the expense of US taxpayers. I see virtually no difference between the last two administrations on this issue. It appears to me that Wall Street owns both parties. So where exactly do you expect political reform to come from?

China's Statements About U.S. Debt Are Overblown

On a very simple level, I never understood how globalization could be broadly beneficial for a wealthy country like the US. If an average US worker is making $20/hour and an average Chinese worker is making $1/hour, eventually I would expect them both to make $10.hour. I do not offer this extremely simple observation as an indictment of globalization, I simply offer it as my expectation that some sort of global salary equilibrium is inevitable in a global economy.

If the Crisis Is Over, We Wasted It

Certainly Wall Street didn't waste this crisis. They transferred their massive debts onto taxpayers and consolidated their power by having a few massive financial institutions grow even larger. Obama approved this response to the crisis the moment he hired Summers and Geithner to run his economic team. Naomi Klein correctly identifies the Bush/Obama (no difference) response to the financial crisis as an example of disaster capitalism.

Long gold, short financials

It seems that the Obama administration has based its economic policy on inflating the financial stocks at any cost. Being short financials myself I would love to see them fall but I'm beginning to think that you can't fight city hall or the White House.

A Portrait of the Mortgage Ax, Not Falling

What a great scam for the delinquent home owner. By all means let's bail people like this out along with the banksters of Wall Street. After all, they were simply victims of their own greed.

Easy Money Did Us In - Geithner

Geithner is doing just what Obama expected him to do; re-inflate the economy through easy money lending. Obama made this fundamental monetary decision when he appointed Geithner, Summers and other Wall Street insiders to run his economic team. If Obama had wanted a major change in US monetary policy he could have appointed people from the Krugman-Roubini school of economics but he did not. I don't agree with Obama's decision but here we are.

Vote For (or Against) the IMF

Funding the IMF certainly can't be any worse than giving our money to Wall Street.

Antitrust for Banks?

Hasn't the ship already sailed on this issue? Unfortunately, too much government money has already been spent propping up these large banks to break them up now. Instead, Washington will probably give us anti-trust rhetoric with very little action.

Accepting the Realpolitik That Killed the Bank Shorts

I'm pretty sure that the men who led us into this financial crisis were rich, well educated and had impressive resumes. Unfortunately, that didn't stop them from looting the country.

Overconfidence and the Financial Crisis

What incentive does Wall Street have to change its ways? Bankers who make risky investments are rewarded with obscene levels of compensation. When the risky investments fail, as in this credit crisis, the government rushes in with taxpayer money to cover all the loses. The media dutifully celebrates that we have narrowly escaped a depression and that we should all pile back into the stock market for a new bull market. A new bubble inflates.

'Surgical' Bankruptcy for Chrysler

Yes, by all means lets blame the union workers and not the executive geniuses who gave us a decade of SUVs and large pickups as we indebted our nation to Saudi Arabia and China.

Credit Default Swaps May Be Playing a Supporting Role in Chrysler Bankruptcy Filings

The Barry O comment was tacky. However, I do agree that with Summers as his chief financial adviser all the moves of the Obama administration will be to protect Wall Street at the expense of the nation.

5 Questions for Christy Romer

My fear is that the debate on whether or not to bailout the banks is already over. Too much federal (taxpayer) money and too much of Obama's political capital has already been spent propping up Wall Street for Obama to turn back now. We have created our own zombie banking system and there is no giant foreign market (as the US was for Japan) to bail us out. Buckle up its going to be a bumpy ride.

Something's Afoot in CDS: The Merrill - Bank of America Decompression Trade

Not the dreaded golden parachute, the bane of all American financial executives!! Followed by the self-serving memoir and corporate lecture tour. No wonder American executives quiver at the thought of being fired.