7/2/2009
Does Bernanke Really Deserve a Second Term?
Speculation that Ben Bernanke might be appointed for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman after his first term expires in January 2010 has to remind one of Washington's Alice in Wonderland-like quality. For if Bernanke were indeed to be reappointed as Fed chairman, it would mean that in the depths of by far the worst U.S. economic recession in the postwar period, one would be reappointing to the job the very person whose fingerprints, along with those of former Fed chief Alan Greenspan, are all over that recession. It would also validate the skeptical worldview of a former boss of mine who believes that, in Washington, nothing succeeds so well as failure. (Source: The American)
Read more >

7/2/2009
Crisis Won't End Until Balance Sheets Get Real
Investors are feeling better about financial companies' balance sheets than they were a few months ago. That's not to say they have a lot of confidence in them. Compare, for example, the stock-market value of Regions Financial Corp. with the bank's reported net worth. At $3.97, the Birmingham, Alabama-based company's stock is up 69 percent since its February low, giving Regions a $4.5 billion market capitalization. That's still only a third of the $13.5 billion book value it showed as of March 31. In the market's view, the bank's asset values remain grossly overstated. (Source: Bloomberg)
Read more >

7/2/2009
The Root of Madoff's Evil
How convenient for the judge and the media to paint Bernard Madoff as Mr. Evil, a uniquely venal blight on an otherwise responsible financial industry in which money is handled honestly and with transparency. Madoff, sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison for bilking investors of billions, should be exhibit A in why the dark world of totally unregulated private money managers and hedge funds should be opened to the light of systematic government supervision. Instead, he is being treated as an aberrant menace, with the danger removed once the devil incarnate, as his victims describe him, is locked up and the key thrown away. (Source: The Nation)
Read more >