After reading much of the final report identifying the causes of the Financial Crisis in the United States, released last Thursday December 27, by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, I have one suggestion. But before I get to it, allow me to explain. Awe-inspiring labor and thought went into this document including interviews with 700…
Today the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released its long-awaited report ( The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: Financial Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States). The Report of the ten-member, bipartisan Commission, consists of the official report adopted by a majority (six) of the commissioners,…
Once again very senior figures are proposing that the scale and structure of very large financial institutions be reconsidered. Nearly every major regulatory leader has raised the question, as have many economists across the political spectrum and in both the United States and United Kingdom. To explore, one can start here and here; I can…
Our largest banks failed to build cushions to absorb losses even while knowing back in 2007 that the music would soon stop playing and (to mix a metaphor) the debt-fueled asset bubble would burst. As it happened, externalizing their losses worked out well for the bankers, but not for the rest of us. It is…
As the story now goes, back in August of 2007, Jared Lee Loughner, asked Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, “What is government if words have no meaning?” Some may identify this query as clear evidence of mental instability. However, it actually happens to be a very rational and important question. Before launching into an analysis, though,…
Today the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released an advance chapter from its final report, to be published on January 11, and a summary of its findings on the blowout of BP’s Macondo well. The summary contains a number of conclusions of which two are critical. First,…
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