Author Archive

Articles by Dean Starkman | Email the Author

 

1. 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

2. The Audit

   Yes, but…

   September 15, 2008 01:15 PM

   A 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

3. The Audit

   The Language of Calamity

   September 14, 2008 10:08 PM

   Even 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

4. The Audit

   Roanoke Chronicles (cont.)

   September 12, 2008 11:01 AM

   Is 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

5. The Audit

   Meanwhile, in Michigan

   September 11, 2008 03:34 PM

   Original 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

6. The Audit

   Something’s Rotten in Roanoke

   September 9, 2008 03:00 PM

   The 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

7. The Audit

   Wall Street Sank Freddie and Fannie

   September 8, 2008 01:17 PM

   My 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

8. The Audit

   “I Got Screwed Up”

   August 11, 2008 10:59 AM

   Gene 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

9. The Audit

   Opening Bell: Are So/Are Not

   August 1, 2008 08:14 AM

   A 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

10. The Audit

    Opening Bell: One Miillioon Doollllars

    July 31, 2008 08:31 AM

    I 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

11. The Audit

    Opening Bell: Gloom, Doom

    July 30, 2008 08:25 AM

    Business 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

12. The Audit

    Opening Bell: Marked to Market

    July 29, 2008 08:05 AM

    Twenty-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

13. The Audit

    The Editor and the Architect

    July 28, 2008 02:31 PM

    A 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

14. The Audit

    Opening Bell: Summer Break

    July 28, 2008 08:03 AM

    A 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

15. The Audit

    The Journal’s Many Anonymice

    July 16, 2008 01:04 PM

    Our 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

16. The Audit

    The Answer Man?

    July 8, 2008 05:57 PM

    Now 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

17. The Audit

    Fact Fight!

    July 8, 2008 12:00 PM

    We 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

18. The Audit

    Brauchli’s Baggage

    June 25, 2008 11:29 AM

    The 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

19. The Audit

    The WSJ Edit Page and the Mortgage Industry

    June 20, 2008 02:06 PM

    Being 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

20. The Audit

    Don’t Panic

    June 20, 2008 11:13 AM

    From 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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