Category Archives: Media watch

Curious Meeting at Treasury Department

The Treasury invited a small group of bloggers for a “discussion” with senior officials on Monday. Initially, the meeting was to be background, which is a sort of journalistic “FYI but you can’t use it” but we were told at the meeting that we could discuss the meeting as long as remarks were not attributed […]

On Wall Street Pay, “Talent”, and the Curious Case of Andrew Hall

I was on the Andrew Hall/Phibro beat for a while and must confess I dropped it in the finish-the-book crunch. I neglected to follow up on and important aspect of the story that is still germane. Readers may recall the brouhaha: Hall, a high stakes oil trader, had received nearly $100 million in 2008 at […]

New York Times: Missing in Action on Health Insurance Lobby Duplicity

In the early days of this blog, I would often wind up comparing coverage of news between the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal because the offender (almost without exception the Journal) had done a job so poor or misleading that it merited comment. Then the credit crisis forced the Journal to up its […]

34 Banks Miss TARP Dividends and Almost No One Notices

I will confess I missed a post opportunity Thursday AM, when an alert reader sent a link to a USA Today story, “34 banks don’t pay their quarterly TARP dividends, ” but I decided to return to it precisely because it has gotten little attention: The U.S. taxpayers’ investments in smaller banks are increasingly at […]

Guest Post: Are Financial Blogs Trustworthy?

By George Washington of Washington’s Blog. The talking heads say that financial blogs aren’t trustworthy. But the whole debate about blogs versus mainstream media is nonsense. In fact, many of the world’s top PhD economics professors and financial advisors have their own blogs. For example (in no particular order): Nouriel Roubini Paul Krugman Nassim Nicholas […]

Further Confirmation That Real Bank Reform is Dead on Arrival

The Financial Times tonight reports that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein made “startling” remarks in Germany, for instance, that a lot of banking activity is rather thin on redeeming social value. Oh, and he admitted bankers might be paid too much, too. Gee, with revelations like that, what might he to ‘fess up to next? That […]

More Bogus Bailout Reporting: “As Big Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit”

Clearly, the spin is in. As a post earlier today discusses, the Financial Times is running a story that claims that the Fed made money on its rescue programs, then slips in all the tidbits in the body of the article to let discerning readers know that the reporter understands that the analysis is utter […]

The Financial Times Joins Fed Flattery Parade: “Fed makes $14bn profit on crisis loans”

I know it may be hard for most readers to believe this, but once upon a time, the New York Times really was a very good paper. I trace its demise to its decision to become a national newspaper, which took place in the later 1990s, instead of a New York city newspaper that set […]

New York Times Runs Yet Another Fawning Story on Health Insurance Industry

In the waning days of Lehman, this blog described a particularly avid defender of the beleaguered bank at CNBC as “the favorite outlet of those who aspire to paint the tape.” That was not terribly well received, needless to say. The New York Times seems to be adopting a similar fawning posture towards health insurers. […]

FSA’s Lord Turner Walks into Buzzsaw by Suggesting Finance Industry Needs to Shrink

Candor is clearly not a good quality in a regulator. Lord Turner, the chairman of the UK’s Financial Services Agency, had the temerity to challenge the notion that rule by the Masters of the Universe was a good idea. From the Financial Times: The head of the City of London watchdog says Britain’s “swollen” financial […]

Who is Tyler Durden?

Reader Peter A pointed out this New York Post article on Tyler Durden today. The Post has broken some hedge fund stories, like losses at particular well known hedge funds during rough trading periods, so it does have good connections in Hedgistan. I would rather not get into this fray, but Tyler Durden has guest […]