Category Archives: regulation

The Four Views of What the Fed Should Do

Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism submits: A gut-wrenching two weeks in the credit markets have been capped by unprecedented moves by central bankers. The ECB’s offer of an unlimited infusion to member banks the week before last was followed last … Continue reading

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Did Bernanke Make a “Rookie Mistake?”

Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism submits: A Bloomberg story, in what may be becoming conventional wisdom, charges Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with making a novice’s error: By lowering the discount rate and issuing a statement conceding threats to the … Continue reading

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The Fed Kills the Shorts?

Traders were supposedly heavily on the put side today, an options expiration day, so the stock market response to the Fed’s discount rate cut seems surprisingly subdued.
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Paul Krugman Does a Hail Mary Pass

Krugman recommends that the Federal government buy mortgages to rescue stressed borrowers. Does he realize that the only realistic way to make this happen in our Brave New World of voodoo credit is to expropriate assets?
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Posted in banking, housing, regulation | 1 Comment

Our Fragile Financial System

Funny how quickly our financial system went from “robust” and “well-diversified” to “fragile.”
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How to Improve Mortgage Disclosures

Memo to Elizabeth
Warren
: Maybe we don’t need a strong new federal regulator, so much as we
just need better disclosure. Kenneth
Harney
has found an FTC study with some startling findings:
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Energy Markets: Insufficiently Regulated

Why regulate markets?
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The Whole Foods Complaint: Weak

There is nothing compelling in the FTC complaint. The idea that Whole Foods and Wild Oats have a monopoly on pleasant shopping experiences and therefore should be banned from merging is laughable on its face.
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Whole Foods – Wild Oats: Has the FTC Been at the Nutmeg?

Why does the FTC want to block this merger?
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Hope for Principles-Based Regulation in New York State

New York governor Eliot Spitzer and his insurance superintendent
Eric Dinallo are aggressively
moving
to shake up the regulatory regime in New York State. This is probably
a good thing.
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