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Articles by Dean Starkman | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Let’s Go to Court!

   November 11, 2008 12:35 PM

   There will time later to assess who’s ahead and who’s behind in the coverage of the financial crisis and the unprecedented scandal it represents, but for now it is important for all news organizations to put aside their rivalries and... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   Bloomberg Steps Up

   November 7, 2008 02:18 PM

   This story crossed Bloomberg's wire just before noon today: BLOOMBERG NEWS SUES FED TO FORCE DISCLOSURE OF LOAN COLLATERAL There’s not much to say but “Go Bloomberg” as the thundering herd of financial news files suit against the Federal... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Goldman’s Backdoor Bailout

   November 4, 2008 11:03 AM

   Last week, I wrote that the lack of disclosure surrounding the American International Group bailout had put The New York Times at odds with Bloomberg over a fundamental question: What was Goldman Sachs’s stake in that bailout? The Times,... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   Goldman’s Risk: Somewhere Between Zero and $20 Billion

   October 29, 2008 03:01 PM

   Coverage of Goldman Sachs has perplexed me throughout the crisis. I’d still like to know, for instance, which subprime lenders it financed during the bad old days and how many of their mortgages it repackaged and sold as collateralized... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Lupica Waves at One

   October 24, 2008 04:48 PM

   Sports columnists aren’t required to read balance sheets or anything, but surely Mike Lupica can do better than this lazy column today that tries to decry the high cost of the new Yankee Stadium and the (truly outrageous) fact... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   Frankly, Goldman, What About the CDOs?

   October 20, 2008 02:42 PM

   A lengthy New York Times piece on the heavy involvement of Goldman Sachs alumni in the government apparatus in charge of the financial crisis avoids altogether what to me is a pressing question: What was Goldman’s own contribution to... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Transparency, Regulation and …

   October 17, 2008 12:22 PM

   Most readers don’t get to see newswire copy, which is available only to subscribers at a price we can’t afford. (Dow Jones: That’s a hint. And don’t forget we’re tax-deductible.) Michael Rapoport, a columnist for Dow Jones Newswires, offers... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   The Coming Credit Card Meltdown

   October 16, 2008 11:20 AM

   BusinessWeek takes a useful look at the next big problem in consumer credit. One word: plastic. The piece’s perspective is upside-down, in my view, in that it concerns itself with the effect of looming defaults on lenders. Really, at... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   Spitzer’s Ghost

   October 14, 2008 09:28 AM

   In 2002, Georgia passed an anti-predatory lending law that had all the usual provisions—it forbade deceptive practices in the disclosure of basic terms, curbed pre-payment penalties that kept borrowers from refinancing or selling their homes, banned usurious interest, etc.—but... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    What She Said

    October 13, 2008 02:22 PM

    A WSJ opinion piece today, “A Capitalist Manifesto,” strikes me as well-worth reading. True, the author, Judy Shelton, sets up a straw man: that the country’s “founding economic philosophy is in deep trouble.” There’s really no sign... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Un-Intel @ NY Magazine

    October 1, 2008 05:35 PM

    I thank New York Magazine and its Daily Intel blog for making me momentarily famous in the areas between Popover’s and the B’nei Jeshurun shul. However, I wonder if it’s not too much to ask the Intel people to... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    Ouryay Eatbay Just Ewblay Upyay

    September 29, 2008 02:52 PM

    As a service to the business-news trade, The Audit would like to offer a few observations about the current financial crisis that may prove helpful in coverage going forward. Our list of some inconvenient truths: 1. Your beat just blew... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    Debating a Catastrophe

    September 26, 2008 05:19 PM

    For months, the business pages and political pages felt so different in tone, content and intensity that reading them was like flipping between different movies. The business pages have been an endless saloon fight, with screaming, shouting, tables being... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    “Ailing” vs. “Embattled”

    September 25, 2008 06:07 PM

    A front-page headline on Wednesday with an article about Warren E. Buffett’s plan to invest $5 billion in the Wall Street investment banking firm Goldman Sachs described that company as “ailing.” While its stock has been battered and it has... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Roundup: A Two-Sided Scandal

    September 24, 2008 09:16 AM

    One thing forgotten by the business press in the debate over the $700 billion bailout, I think, is that this is not the first but the second blow dealt ordinary Americans in the credit scandal. Forcing taxpayers—who had nothing... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Audit Roundup: Context, Please

    September 23, 2008 09:32 AM

    If I were a newspaper editor right now I’d be ordering more stories like this Bloomberg piece, which gropes for historical comparisons to where we are now and finds one in Scandinavia’s financial crisis of the late... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    Audit Roundup: Without Words

    September 22, 2008 09:01 AM

    The business press has done its usual thorough job of explaining the whos, whats and wherefores of this historic weekend, but I’m not sure anyone’s been able to convey the disgrace, the scandal in all its fullness, of the fact... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    Audit Roundup: Weil, Eisinger vs. White Noise

    September 19, 2008 08:21 AM

    Readers who joined the business press conversation only recently must getting a headache by now. Wall Street is imploding, and what’s all this about short sellers? Are they really naked? Is “marking to market” really bad? It sounds so good.... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    It Really Is That Bad

    September 18, 2008 11:42 AM

    People ask me if the business press has acted responsibly in describing the panic currently consuming global financial institutions and markets—what with the use of words like “momentous,” “unprecedented,” “historic,” etc.—and I tell them yes. There’s no other way... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Public Policy Matters After All

    September 16, 2008 12:19 PM

    I’m wondering if any other newspaper and business-press readers are curious about the degree to which public policy, including laws passed by Congress and signed by presidents, have anything to do with the great unraveling of the U.S. financial system?... Continue reading

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