rdan Subprime by Todd Federman Inspired by “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly”, lyrics by Rose Bonne No money down, two years interest free, Buying a house was no problem you see. And so the young man along with his spouse, They could not afford, but yet bought the house. A company […]

rdan Yves Smith catches a caution from the father of capitalism, Credit cards can charge 30%, definitely not near prime rate for loans. Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, advocated usury laws (limits on interest rates) because they would promote lending to prudent borrowers and productive projects, which was better for society as a […]

rdan Dean Baker suggests second opinions on the Geithner strategy….Stiglitz team and Johnson team: The prospect of even an arranged bankruptcy of a major bank will undoubtedly shake up markets, but many safeguards have been put in place since the Lehman collapse. If the stock market goes down for a few weeks or months, who […]

rdan(hat tip vtcodger) The Guardian reports that Elizabeth Warren will be recommending startling actions. Any confirmation? Elizabeth Warren, chief watchdog of America’s $700bn (£472bn) bank bailout plan, will this week call for the removal of top executives from Citigroup, AIG and other institutions that have received government funds in a damning report that will question […]

by Bruce Webb (updated to add table) Click to enlarge. New poll: NCPSSM: Americans Support Protecting Social Security Benefits. Andrew Biggs links us to good news for those supporters of Social Security who oppose addressing the problem through benefit cuts. He comments on this and rightly points out that the poll is expressly limited to […]

The Hilzoy Manifesto and a Small Addendumupdate: by cactus Hilzoy has a way with words. And sometimes she nails complex ideas concisely, clearly, and incredibly to the point. I think this could be a manifesto of sorts for much of the center-left in this country: Like a lot of conservatives, I am very worried about […]

Robert Waldmann I consider plain old mortgage bonds (MBS) the last clearly socially useful innovative financial product. Here I will argue contra MBS basically in an attempt to understand Krugman’s not so recent root and branch denunciation of securitization. First the case for the original MBS (which I actually believe). Securitized claims on the cash […]

Suppose I told you that there was a crisis with a stock, say, GE. That the price of the stock had dropped around 75% in the past year. And you responded, “But the problem is solved; the prices of long-term Call Options (say, the January 2011 20s) has gone up, as has their Open Interest. […]

by Bruce Webb Articles this week by Kevin Hassett and Lori Montgomery sought to make the claim that deficits scheduled for 2017 had been moved up to today as a reason to immediately convene a bi-partisan Commission to Reform Social Security (with ‘bi-partisan’ meaning dominated by Blue Dog Dems and Conservative Republicans). Well first of […]

rdan Salon has a short note and a voting widget for whether newspapers should charge for on-line content as a way to increase revenue and I assume stay in business as part of a conversational piece.Charging for on-line information. Locally, whether the Boston Globe stays in business is a major concern. Also, it is also […]