Posts Tagged: Andrew Redleaf

Just getting back after a brief break, and we’re thrilled to see this.

We certainly do need to slow down markets. There is no possible economic justification for markets trading at their current pace. Hi-speed trading does not increase the intelligence of the market, it simply testifies to the meaninglessness of market prices, their complete detachment from value. See Chapter 9 of PANIC titled “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom”
AR & [...]

As if there were ever any doubt that the worst banks on the block were the two run by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, CBO now confirms that rescuing Fannie and Freddie will cost taxpayers at least $389 billion.
Of course lots of the money spent on the twins indirectly goes to bailing out the other [...]

One of the many reasons to hate Goldman is that it is hard to stop thinking about them. Sure a good paradigm is a terrible thing to waste, but at some point enough is enough.
Not yet apparently. Last night it occurred to us what this whole Goldman, Paulson, IKB (the [...]

GOP succeeds in getting an “open amendment” debate.
Now all they need is an amendment!
Last night Republicans succeeded in persuading Democrats to actually allow the GOP to offer some new ideas during the debate on financial reform.
Now all the GOP needs are some ideas–always a challenge for the Stupid Party. But we have one for [...]

CEO Blankfein says Goldman does God’s work. He must have meant bingo.
The legitimate function of financial markets is to efficiently move money from savers into business investment. This is true of primary issues—a newly issued stock or bond—but also of secondary sales (I sell you my pre-existing shares of SNAFU industries) because even in the [...]

For Gretchen Morgenson to come right out and say, at length and in detail, that the current approach to financial reform is mostly a reaffirmation of the status quo is a huge development. Morgenson is respected by everyone (she is also the single-most-quoted source in PANIC). It will be very hard to represent opposition to [...]

Republicans should not obstruct the Dodd/Frank bill and align themselves with the defenders of the megabanks. They should ask for one little thing in return for their support; better markets. President Obama in his speech lined up behind Dodd, Frank and the misguided belief that regulators can actually grasp what the megabanks are [...]

Richard was on with a Christian radio host, Craig Roberts (KFAX, San Francisco) last night, pitching our full disclosure, no-more-secret-banking proposal. Show went well. Then two minutes after Richard gets off the air the KFAX producer calls him and says, “Craig loves the idea so much that he’s come up with a slogan for you: [...]

Here is our response to Nicole Gelinas: