US Taxpayers on the Hook for Five Trillion in Bad Debt

March 11, 2010 Yahoo Finance By Aaron Task House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank caused a bit of an uproar Friday when he suggested the U.S. government does not guarantee the debts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Rep. Frank later recanted and backed a Treasury Department statement reassuring investors that, yes, Fannie and Freddie Mae debt is guaranteed

Economists Opposing Fed Audit Have Ties to Fed

November 20, 2009 The Huffington Post By Ryan Grim As the debate over an audit of the Federal Reserve intensifies in the House, one camp is trotting out eight academics that it calls a “political cross section of prominent economists.” A review of their backgrounds shows they are anything but. In a letter to the House Financial Services Committee earlier

Economists Opposing Fed Audit Have Ties to Fed

November 20, 2009 The Huffington Post By Ryan Grim As the debate over an audit of the Federal Reserve intensifies in the House, one camp is trotting out eight academics that it calls a “political cross section of prominent economists.” A review of their backgrounds shows they are anything but. In a letter to the House Financial Services Committee earlier

New Derivatives Legislation “Was Probably Written by JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs”

Washington’s Blog November 16, 2009 A d v e r t i s e m e n t As I have repeatedly written (see this and this ), the new derivatives legislation is so bad that it probably increases – rather than decreases – the risk to the financial system. William Greider has a great piece in The Nation pointing out : Who drafted this dubious piece of legislation? Bankers (or their lawyers) did. The leading sellers of derivatives are an exclusive club of five very large financial institutions–Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs–that hold 95 percent of the derivatives exposure among the largest banks (the total contract value exceeds $290 trillion). These are the same folks who toppled the global economy and compelled government to intervene with gigantic bailouts. Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor and veteran federal regulator, studied the House committee’s 187-page bill and detected the fine …