Author Archive
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Essay
Boiler Room
September 16, 2008 10:43 AM“Mr. Howard made it clear to the mortgage broker that he could not read or write, but his loan application erroneously claimed he had had 16 years of education.” —Center for Responsible Lending report, “IndyMac: What Went Wrong?” June 30,... Continue reading
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The Audit
Yes, but…
September 15, 2008 01:15 PMA reader responds to this morning's post of qualified business-press praise: Dear Dean, Some comments. First, now that the horse has left the barn, I agree that the more sophisticated end of the business press is paying attention and... Continue reading
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The Audit
The Language of Calamity
September 14, 2008 10:08 PMEven casual business press readers by now know that what is happening on Wall Street is new, unusual, historic, unfamiliar, unknown. Let’s be clear: what is happening is financially catastrophic for some but extremely dangerous for all. The extinction of... Continue reading
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The Audit
Roanoke Chronicles (cont.)
September 12, 2008 11:01 AMIs it any wonder that newspapers are going the way of the Interstate Commerce Commission? Michael Stowe, managing editor of the Roanoke Times, sought to reassure staffers, apparently, that editors did not cave into a powerful local institution after... Continue reading
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The Audit
Meanwhile, in Michigan
September 11, 2008 03:34 PMOriginal reporting is a beautiful thing, and so all journophiles should take heart at the local online “papers” springing up around the country to fill the Grand Canyon-sized gaps left by old-media local newspapers currently preoccupied with the task... Continue reading
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The Audit
Something’s Rotten in Roanoke
September 9, 2008 03:00 PMThe Roanoke Times is strangely silent about whether it reassigned a reporter at the behest of a big local business. A couple of weeks ago, a strong Wall Street Journal story peeled the curtain back on how a monopoly... Continue reading
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The Audit
Wall Street Sank Freddie and Fannie
September 8, 2008 01:17 PMMy only quibble with the gusher of stories this morning on the government’s takeover on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is my usual one—ahistoricism. Reading all this, one gets the impression that those politically protected... Continue reading
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The Audit
“I Got Screwed Up”
August 11, 2008 10:59 AMGene Marcial, the longtime writer of BusinessWeek’s “Inside Wall Street” column, is a business-press institution. For more than two decades, week after week, Marcial has provided readers with a weekly diet of stock tips, invariably “buy” recommendations, delivered in a... Continue reading
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The Audit
Opening Bell: Are So/Are Not
August 1, 2008 08:14 AMA lot of people express frustration with “are-we or aren’t-we” economic stories, like the one this morning by The New York Times’s Peter Goodman, who tries to figure out whether or not we’re in an official recession. What’s... Continue reading
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The Audit
Opening Bell: One Miillioon Doollllars
July 31, 2008 08:31 AMI wonder sometimes about our priorities over here in the business space. Authorities and their chroniclers in the business press are going after Wall Street like Eliot Ness for deceptive practices in the sale of auction-rate securities, sold as cash-like... Continue reading
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The Audit
Opening Bell: Gloom, Doom
July 30, 2008 08:25 AMBusiness is cyclical and so is business news, but even so it’s amazing how universally bad the news is across industries and around the world. Bloomberg has a couple of its useful (but little-noticed outside the Bloomberg box) stories that... Continue reading
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The Audit
Opening Bell: Marked to Market
July 29, 2008 08:05 AMTwenty-two cents. We now know the price of those collateralized debt obligations backed by loans foisted by Ameriquest and other boiler rooms on unsophisticated, financially shaky American homebuyers, packaged by Wall Street, rated AAA by Moody’s and its ilk, and... Continue reading
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The Audit
The Editor and the Architect
July 28, 2008 02:31 PMA splashy new show at the Museum of Modern Art puts a spotlight on a three-year-old story in Time and the issue of covering one's relatives. Last week, MOMA opened with much fanfare an exhibit of new designs in... Continue reading
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The Audit
Opening Bell: Summer Break
July 28, 2008 08:03 AMA nice slow start to the week, financial disaster-wise, as no big investment bank announced a major writedown, no bad housing numbers were released and no emergency action was needed by Treasury and the Federal Reserve over the weekend. ... Continue reading
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The Audit
The Journal’s Many Anonymice
July 16, 2008 01:04 PMOur crony in criticism, Slate’s Jack Shafer, stumbles this morning in an otherwise interesting discussion about which major media outlets most often and most egregiously use anonymous sources to support stories. He praises The Wall Street Journal as “the... Continue reading
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The Audit
The Answer Man?
July 8, 2008 05:57 PMNow that The Washington Post has chosen Marcus Brauchli over Phil Bennett to be its new executive editor, I hope I don’t sound impertinent if I ask: What’s the difference? Not “what’s the difference; they’re both mediocre.” Actually,... Continue reading
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The Audit
Fact Fight!
July 8, 2008 12:00 PMWe can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts. -- John Dewey A big Bloomberg News piece on insurance has unleashed the wrath of that industry, entangled New York’s <a... Continue reading
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The Audit
Brauchli’s Baggage
June 25, 2008 11:29 AMThe day will come when the next executive editor of The Washington Post will have to choose between the easy way or the hard way. Difficult decisions come with the job. This is worth thinking about now that Marcus... Continue reading
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The Audit
The WSJ Edit Page and the Mortgage Industry
June 20, 2008 02:06 PMBeing a Wall Street Journal editorial writer means never having to say you’re sorry. Those literary lions of Liberty Street now take Senator Chris Dodd to task for getting a favorable loan from the execrable Countrywide Financial, then pushing... Continue reading
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The Audit
Don’t Panic
June 20, 2008 11:13 AMFrom time to time, The Audit will interview thought leaders about both financial journalism and the finances of journalism. John Rose is a senior partner and managing director of Boston Consulting Group and co-head of its global media practice. Ten... Continue reading
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The Audit Business
- Audit Notes: pyramid people, Disney and ABC, no USA Today paywall Roddy Boyd digs into a diet-shake pyramid scheme
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