During former Treasury Secretary Paulson’s interview with Larry Kudlow last night, Larry asked him about the role of mark to market accounting in the financial crisis. Secretary Paulson defended mark to market accounting. However, his context and his examples came from his many years of investment banking at Goldman Sachs where assets are traded daily [...]
A couple of people have mentioned to me that the TARP repayments are all over the news and suggested that I write about it. My response has been that I didn’t know how to avoid saying I told you so. I’ve written and said often that TARP would produce a profit for taxpayers, or only [...]
If it weren't tacky to say I told you so, I'd refer you to my previous posts and interviews pointing out the dangers and pitfalls of the bank stress tests. They weren't just a mistake; they were a mistake anyone without sleep deprivation should have seen coming a mile away. It's not the biggest mistake [...]
On January 22, 2009 I posted a letter from Alan Greenspan on the inappropriateness of mark to market accounting for the commercial bank business model [click here]. I also quoted from a recent report issued by Paul Volcker on the same subject. For your convenience I'm posting two other pertinent letters on the subject: One by Treasury [...]
I'm scheduled to be on CNBC's Kudlow Report tonight around 7:20 Eastern; 6:20 Central. We will be discussing Mark to Market. For general information about The Kudlow Report go here. [In case you missed it, here's the video footage. Click here.]
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Not so when the word is nationalization. That word appears to have trimmed a few more percentage points off the stock averages in the past few days.