Readers sent me some very good links for today (thanks!) some of which are featured below:
Wall Street Wants Student Debt as Collateral for Fed Bloomberg (hat tip reader sk). Once you demonstrate you’ll lend against unwanted collateral, there’s no end to the requests, although as sk pointed out, this type of loan has favorable odds of being money good to taxpayers in the long haul
CDS report: Analysts say an end to the tightening is nigh FT Alphaville (hat tip reader Dwight)
The Economic Costs of the Endless War Robert Reich
FDIC Chairwoman Calls for Activism WSJ Economics Blog
Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers New York Times
Demand for Credit Falls As Lenders Raise Standards Wall Street Journal. But note that consumer debt is still on the rise…..
Top hedge fund manager earns $3bn Financial Times
A Fear That the Market’s Watchdog Is Losing Its Bite New York Times. While this piece discusses the erosion of enforcement under Christopher Cox, it ignores the longer term decay in the agency’s aggressiveness. Congressmen, most notably Senator Joseph Lieberman, have repeatedly threatened to cut SEC funding when it looked like it might start upsetting too many apple carts (Arthur Levitt discussed this long form in his memoir Take on the Street).
Antidote du jour:
