Author Archives: Edward Harrison

About Edward Harrison

I am a banking and finance specialist at the economic consultancy Global Macro Advisors. Previously, I worked at Deutsche Bank, Bain, the Corporate Executive Board and Yahoo. I have a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University. As to ideology, I would call myself a libertarian realist - believer in the primacy of markets over a statist approach. However, I am no ideologue who believes that markets can solve all problems. Having lived in a lot of different places, I tend to take a global approach to economics and politics. I started my career as a diplomat in the foreign service and speak German, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and French as well as English and can read a number of other European languages. I enjoy a good debate on these issues and I hope you enjoy my blogs. Please do sign up for the Email and RSS feeds on my blog pages. Cheers. Edward http://www.creditwritedowns.com

Guest post: A populist interpretation of the latest Boom-Bust cycle

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. As with my most recent post here on Naked Capitalism about Larry Summers, I want to write a thought piece here, as much for discussion’s sake as for its analysis. Now, the core of what you are about to read is something I put together and […]

Guest Post: Channeling my inner Larry Summers

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. Now that the results of the stress tests have been revealed, I would like to share a post with you that I wrote on Credit Writedowns about two weeks ago. In this post, my operating assumption was that the stress tests were a grand charade. Summers […]

Guest post: Economic recovery and the perverse math of GDP reporting

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns Now that everyone is talking about green shoots and the potential for economic recovery, I thought I would run through the statistics of U.S. GDP with you. The reason I am bringing this up is that there is a lot of confusion about what recovery means […]

Guest post: Asia breaks free from Geithner and Summers

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns On Monday, I mentioned that the Asian Development Bank Fund was a clear sign that Asia was cutting loose from the west and looking to take care of things domestically. WIlliam Pesek of Bloomberg News put out a piece this morning echoing those sentiments, but also […]

Guest Post: The case of the dissident Chrysler bondholders

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns Yesterday, I posted a video in which two auto experts argued that the dissident creditors were getting a raw deal (See “A discussion about Chrysler’s bankruptcy plan on Charlie Rose“). The crux of the problem is their belief that they were being railroaded into a deal […]

Guest Post: HRE – defusing the German financial time bomb

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns The first bank nationalization in German history is about to take place. At issue is Hypo Real Estate (HRE), a troubled Munich-based company that lends to commercial property developers and to build offices, hotels, roads, airports, you name it. This issue has been building for nearly […]

Guest post: Trouble looms for Lewis at annual meeting with MAC clause top of mind

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns This is an updated version of a post that I wrote yesterday at Credit Writedowns. Today we are going to see whether shareholders are going to back Ken Lewis, the embattled CEO of Bank of America, and his board. I see this as a watershed event […]

Guest Post: Stress tests reveal Citi and BofA need more capital, but you knew that already

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns The leaks about who failed the stress tests are already starting. Who got a big fat ‘F’? Apparently, Citi and BofA for starters. But is that any surprise? Regulators have told Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. that the banks may need to raise more […]

Guest Post: The horrible self-dealing of Ken Lewis and the principal-agent problem

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns I don’t much like Ken Lewis. It should be fairly obvious to everyone that he is a man who has only his own interests at heart. But, his revelation that BofA bought Merrill Lynch for the agreed-upon September price, despite Merrill’s having an additional $7 billion […]

Guest post: Breaking news – China has been secretly stocking up on gold

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns China is really looking at a lot of other options to get away from the U.S. dollar. The latest report is that it has been building huge gold reserves. There is no doubt that China wants to get out and away from the U.S. dollar now. […]

Guest post: How big banks earned so much money this quarter

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns We are a few weeks into earnings season and it should be abundantly clear that financial institutions are firing on all cylinders. In fact, financials are leading the broader market for the first time since 1993. Yet, loan losses have been absolutely enormous. What gives? The […]

Guest Post: The Fake Recovery

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns I last posted on “Credt Writedowns” on Thursday before the Easter Holidays in two posts very much at odds with one another. The overall thrust of the first post was that the financial services industry in the United States was due to gain from some very […]

Guest post: Employment situation report paints grim picture

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns I have just finished looking at the latest employment situation report and there is absolutely no good news there. This report is miles apart from the jobless claims data I reviewed yesterday and does not suggest we are anywhere close to a bottom. The headline number […]

Guest post: Are jobless claims peaking?

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns Tomorrow, we all await the unemployment number with anticipation. In all likelihood, it is going to be a nasty number edging us ever closer to the 9.0% I once saw as a sort of upper range number for 2009. Meanwhile, jobless claims for the week ended […]

Guest post: Obama’s auto plan: good strategy, poor tactics

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns I like the fact that President Obama has drawn a line in the sand and signaled that no more funds will be given to U.S. automakers without their presenting a viable long-term plan for restructuring. Ultimately, the automakers cannot survive merely as a result of government […]