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Saturday Reads Around The Internets for January 22, 2011

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Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made our eyes pop.

Banks Want Pieces of Freddie & Fannie Mae

The New York Times reports Banks want to securitize mortgages with a government guarantee:

Wells Fargo and some other large banks would like private companies, perhaps even themselves, to become the new housing finance giants helping to bundle individual mortgages into securities — that would be stamped with a government guarantee.

The banks have presented their ideas publicly through trade groups. Housing industry consultants and people familiar with recent meetings at the Treasury Department say these banks view the government’s overhaul of the mortgage market as a potential profit opportunity. Treasury officials have met with executives from several institutions, including Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, according to a public listing of the meetings.

Incredible, instead of regulating derivatives which caused the Financial Crisis, banks now want to make them and get the government to guarantee them.

We Gives Businesses Our Money, They Move to China

Saturday Reads Around The Internets

Submitted by on

shocknews
Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made this reader's eyes pop.

Too Big To Fail Banks Just Got Bigger

The Wall Street Journal reports those TBTF TARP recipient banks just got bigger:

The top five U.S. commercial and investment banks — Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs — have emerged from the financial crisis larger than ever. As of the third quarter of 2010, they had a total of $8.6 trillion in assets, according to data provider Capital IQ. That’s 13.3% of all U.S. financial firms’ assets, up from 11.8% three years earlier, when the financial crisis hit.

Oil Shocks & Recessions

As we've talked about, economist James Hamilton has published new research showing a strong correlation between sudden rise in oil prices and recessions.

Every recession (with one exception) was preceded by an increase in oil prices, and every oil market disruption (with one exception) was followed by an economic recession.

He also analyzes price controls and their effect. Hamilton wrote a blog piece, with graphs, which overviews his conclusions.

Understanding The Democratic Party Power Structure

Former Congressional Staffer Matt Stoller has some amazing insights into the power structure of the Democratic party:

Happy Holidays From The Economic Populist

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Ho Ho Ho and Happy Holidays! It's Christmas, the time of layoffs, of getting kicked out of your home and watching television commercials reminding you of all the stuff you cannot afford. It is surely a time of torture through Christmas music. Your kids need shoes and you can't find a job. Seasons Greetings! You better watch out and better not cry, below are stories that....

Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Newborn King, we have Bank of America stealing a widow husband's ashes off the mantle.

When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks.

When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, Robert.

The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.

Must Read Posts for August 22, 2010

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On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the right column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

It appears there is a strong correlation to income inequality and national economic implosions. One of our themes on The Economic Populist is without a strong U.S. middle class and American labor force, there is no national economy.

Must Read Post #2

This is almost off the wall. The Wall Street Journal has an article, The End of Management. They discuss the bureaucratic nightmare called corporations and their never ending managerial organizational charts and roadmaps. The problem is the article solutions proposed often involve global labor arbitrage. Not everyone can sit around working on open source for free. Additionally, it is well documented that bidding per project is a method to pay below minimum wage for advanced software and engineering skills. No job security, benefits or even per hour pay. While I heartily agree that corporate management is arcane, one must figure out a way to provide stable income, retirement, benefits for people to produce.

Must Read Posts for August 14, 2010

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On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the right column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

Another scary chart, proving corporations are simply creating jobs....abroad, this time from The Economist. The last two recessions are worst than the Great Depression in terms of job growth.

 

Must Read Posts for August 9, 2010

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On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the right column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

Goldman Sachs made 35% of their 2009 profits from derivatives:

In a memo sent to the FCIC -- a government panel charged with investigating the roots of the financial crisis -- Wall Street's most profitable bank revealed that its derivatives operations generated $11.3-$15.9 billion of its $45.17 billion net revenue in 2009. This amounts to 25-35 percent of the bank's revenue.

Must Read Post #2

William Greider writes about the AIG Bail Out Scandal:

Must Read Posts for August 5, 2010

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On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the right column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

An Aerospace Engineer states the obvious, the best job training is a job:

The problem was not the investment Cortney's family made in her education. The problem is our dangerously low level of job creation.

What happened to the jobs Cortney was counting on?

Investment creates jobs. GE invests billions in China. Microsoft invests billions in India. Boeing invests billions in Russia. General Motors builds more cars in China than in America. We are making millions of new jobs -- just not in America.

It is no surprise that our economy is hollowing out. Look at the huge global oversupply of cheap labor, combined with mobility of capital, rapid transfer of technology out of the country, and trade policies that encourage investment offshore.

Must Read Posts for July 31, 2010

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On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the right column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

Ethics is coming to D.C. Maxine Waters seemingly got some TARP money for a bank her husband and earlier herself, had stock in. Charlie Rangel didn't pay his taxes, while writing legislation to modify the U.S. tax code.

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