DECEMBER 23, 2011 What Fannie and Freddie Knew The SEC shows how the toxic twins turbocharged the housing bubble. Democrats have spent years arguing that private lenders created the housing boom and bust, and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac merely came along for the ride. This was always a politically convenient fiction, and now […]
THE TOXIC TWINS – WHAT FANNIE AND FREDDIE KNEW Read More »
DECEMBER 21, 2011 The Financial Crisis on Trial The SEC fingers the government-backed mortgage buyers, not Wall Street greed. By PETER J. WALLISON The Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuits against six top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced last week, are a seminal event. For the first time in a government report, the
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ON TRIAL – FANNIE AND FREDDIE Read More »
DECEMBER 12, 2011 In the U.S. mortgage crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis, bad policies subsidized bad investments. By L. GORDON CROVITZ EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE: The reason prosecutors can’t prove criminal intent is that in many cases the bankers were simply trading in compliance with the regulations governing them. Art imitates life, even
FINANCIAL REGULATION: WORSE THAN A CRIME Read More »
JANUARY 19, 2011 Obama’s Rules Revelation The era of big regulation is over. Or is it? President Obama took to these pages yesterday to announce a new executive order to restore “balance” to federal regulation and root out rules that impede job creation and economic growth. If he means it, this will be one of
THE REGULATION BOOM Read More »
JANUARY 10, 2011 By making it harder for companies to go public, Congress and regulators tilt the playing field in favor of the wealthy and well-connected. By L. GORDON CROVITZ Facebook raised $500 million last week, but the only people who could invest were the wealthiest private clients of Goldman Sachs. Instead of offering shares
FACEBOOK – HOW WASHINGTON DEFRIENDED INVESTORS Read More »
THEBLAZE.COM Business WikiLeaks’ Next Target: Wall Street Posted on November 29, 2010 at 11:40pm by Meredith Jessup In an exclusive interview with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange reportedly told Forbes that leaked classified documents from the U.S. State Department and Pentagon are “just the beginning.” Forbes reports that early next year, Assange claims that a major American bank
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November 17, 2010 Cities Face a Deepening Fiscal Crisis By Steven Malanga The steep fiscal crisis that many states face includes staggering retirement costs for their workers, estimated at some $3 trillion in unfunded future promises. The size of those liabilities has already shaken up some municipal bond investors, and the inadequate, sometimes misleading way
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AUGUST 30, 2010 Alinsky Wins at the SEC A new proxy access rule will help activists and unions, not shareholders. The Reaganites who came to Washington in 1981 used to say that “personnel is policy.” Flash forward to 2009 at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where Chairman Mary Schapiro handed senior roles to former union
SAUL ALINSKY WINS AT THE SEC Read More »
AUGUST 27, 2010 The SEC’s Sop to Unions Under the new rules, average shareholders won’t muster the numbers to influence corporate elections. By PAUL ATKINS The Securities and Exchange Commission is busier than ever in the wake of the financial crisis and the most significant financial legislative changes since the 1930s. So it has been
SEC’S NEW RULING FAVORS UNIONS Read More »
