Category Archives: banking
It’s a Surprise
Chris Dodd and Nancy Pelosi explain here that you have to pass their 2000 page bills to find out what’s in them.
William Saletan has an interesting piece in Slate detailing how Kagan, while working in the Clinton White House, doctored a report on partial birth abortion by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynocologists. He points out that the report was taken as expert opinion in court rulings. If she gets on the Supreme Court and overturns a ruling because it was based on her original lie, would that make her an activist judge?
E.U. Time to Shine
Yesterday Germany outlawed naked shortselling. I looked it up, it has nothing to do with day trading at home in your underwear. In most short selling you have to borrow the security you are shorting and then return it at the hoped for lower price. With a naked short you don’t even borrow the the security. The euro responded to the new rule by falling to a 4 year low. The E.U. is on the hook for a trillion dollar bailout and Paul Volker says a breakup is possible.
Short Shorts
Holman Jenkins says the subtext of yesterday’s Senate panel grilling was that it’s unpatriotic not to lose money when home values plummet.
Middleman
As President Obama signed into law the federal takeover of the student loan industry, he said he was “ending giveaways to banks” by “cutting out the middleman“. “Middleman” Sallie Mae announced it will lay off 2500 employees.
