http://www.cjr.org/ en Copyright 2009 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:46:59 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Ryan Chittum Remember that $500 million program for small businesses Goldman Sachs announced along with its apology earlier this week? It was splashed on C1 of The Wall Street Journal and A1 of The New York Times, which wrote that "the bank said Tuesday that it would spend $500 million — or about 3 percent of the $16.7 billion it... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/friday_links_smart_money_rodne.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/friday_links_smart_money_rodne.php The Audit Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:46:59 -0500 Ryan Chittum Bloomberg gets a nice scoop that the Federal Reserve is apparently worried about the new bubble it's inflating. Federal Reserve officials are stepping up scrutiny of the biggest U.S. banks to ensure the lenders can withstand a reversal of soaring global-asset prices, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Global stocks are up 71 percent from March. At... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/bloomberg_finds_the_fed_on_bub.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/bloomberg_finds_the_fed_on_bub.php The Audit Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:31:44 -0500 Ryan Chittum I wrote twice on Tuesday about the bizarre Tim Geithner quote that "the financial condition of the counterparties was not a relevant factor" in his decision to bail out AIG. I called it a "stunner" and said it ought to be "second-day-story number one." Now we're to the fourth day and it's just us and now The Wall... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wsj_editorial_scrutinizes_geit.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wsj_editorial_scrutinizes_geit.php The Audit Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:12:02 -0500 Dean Starkman The Journal Inquirer, of Manchester, Conn., which over the summer forced its larger rival, the Hartford Courant, to admit to plagiarizing some of the JI's local news coverage, took its dispute a step further yesterday, suing the Courant for copyright infringement and seeking unspecified money damages. The JI has never been a shrinking violet when it comes to... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/content_worth_suing_over.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/content_worth_suing_over.php The Audit Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:08:40 -0500 Ryan Chittum The Wall Street Journal has a very good page-one leder on Ken Griffin's giant hedge fund firm Citadel, which is not as giant as it was, cratering 55 percent last year (it's made up a decent amount of it back this year). The Journal gets inside the company to put some color on its well-known woes. It reports that... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/thursday_links_custard_ken_mor.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/thursday_links_custard_ken_mor.php The Audit Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:44:22 -0500 Ryan Chittum http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/prospects_take_on_too_big_to_f.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/prospects_take_on_too_big_to_f.php The Audit Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:18:36 -0500 Ryan Chittum Bloomberg this morning posts a really good profile of Elizabeth Warren, who, despite much of the press's dismissal of her earlier this year, has become one of the most influential people in Washington. Her Consumer Financial Protection Agency is very likely to become law soon, and it's quite possible she could be picked to head it. This has the... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/a_good_bloomberg_profile_of_el.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/a_good_bloomberg_profile_of_el.php The Audit Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:23:17 -0500 Ryan Chittum The New York Times looks at Philadelphia's way of dealing with the foreclosure crisis: Forcing homeowners and lenders face to face to try to hash out a modification before the bank can foreclose. This is good reporting that remind us how heavy this stuff is. This third generation owner of a home got a reprieve with the help of... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wednesday_links_phillys_mod_po.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wednesday_links_phillys_mod_po.php The Audit Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:03:34 -0500 Ryan Chittum http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/tyrangiel_takes_over_at_busine.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/tyrangiel_takes_over_at_busine.php The Audit Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:27:15 -0500 Curtis Brainard This week, The New York Times published two much-needed articles questioning the value of programs that let consumers pay a small fee to ostensibly reduce their carbon footprints. The first, by Kate Galbraith, focused on renewable energy certificates, which allow utilities to offer their customers the choice of paying a small premium on their electricity... http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/trains_planes_and_carbon_offse.php http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/trains_planes_and_carbon_offse.php The Observatory Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:31:11 -0500 Ryan Chittum The Wall Street Journal fleshes out the Goldman Sachs backdoor bailout part of the Special Inspector General of the TARP's AIG report issued yesterday. Basically, the SIGTARP says Goldman was bailed out by the AIG bailout, something the firm (an Audit funder) has denied until now, as you can see from this GS statement (emphasis mine): "Goldman Sachs has... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wsj_zeroes_in_on_goldman_colla.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wsj_zeroes_in_on_goldman_colla.php The Audit Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:19:16 -0500 Ryan Chittum The New York Times reports that employers systematically under-report workplace injuries, citing a new GAO report. It says OSHA will adopt the GAO's recommendations, including "requiring inspectors to interview employees during all audits to check the accuracy of employer-provided injury data." Also: But the G.A.O. report cited several academic studies that found that OSHA data failed to include up... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/tuesday_links_lowballing_osha.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/tuesday_links_lowballing_osha.php The Audit Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:48:35 -0500 Ryan Chittum http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_debt_privilege.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_debt_privilege.php The Audit Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:22:35 -0500 Ryan Chittum Did the Federal Reserve have any leverage in its negotiations with AIG counterparties, the ones it paid one hundred cents on the dollar to for stuff worth far less? And if it did have some, how much? That's the nut of the whole question, flared anew today by the release of a report on the deals by the Special Inspector... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/misplaying_the_sigtarp_report.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/misplaying_the_sigtarp_report.php The Audit Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:32:00 -0500 Ryan Chittum Here's a win for the press, namely The New York Times and Bloomberg. The government, or one of its internal watchdogs anyway, the TARP Inspector General, looks at the AIG backdoor bailout of Wall Street (and France and Germany, etc.) that the two outlets have been writing about since way back last September. You'll not be surprised to find that... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_backdoorbailout_report_cov.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_backdoorbailout_report_cov.php The Audit Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:27:45 -0500