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Articles by Dean Starkman | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Those Pricey Reporters, Business Press Critique, Wolff’s Idealism, etc.

   April 29, 2011 02:51 PM

   --What's a story cost? Ken Doctor asks Clark Gilbert, CEO of the Deseret News's parent, who gives this breakdown: *$250-$300 per staff-written story;*$100 per stringer story;*$25 per Associated Press story;*$5-12 for “remote” stories, largely written by... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   What Washington Does All Day

   April 29, 2011 11:55 AM

   David Brooks says correctly that not enough Washington reporters break away from the pack and report on how the government really works. Let's just say this is an understatement. Huffington Post fills a breach in more ways than... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   When No One Cared About Moody’s and S&P’s Opinions

   April 28, 2011 02:24 PM

   Does it rankle you that when S&P or Moody's issues a credit warning on, say, Japanese debt, not to mention the credit profile of the United States, it still matters? It does me. It especially frosts my... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   “The News Was That It Happened”

   April 27, 2011 05:40 PM

   I wish that was an original thought, but Randall Forsyth of Barron's made the apt observation on the post-game wrap-up on the WSJ NewsHub web video/live blog show of the Bernanke press conference, the first-ever by a... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Ask Bernanke About This, Too

   April 27, 2011 11:24 AM

   This morning's strong Huffington Post piece on black-unemployment is a useful clip to print out and carry to the first-ever press conference Ben Bernanke is hosting this afternoon. Everybody's got an opinion on what to ask:... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   Whither Twitter?

   April 27, 2011 08:44 AM

   What does it mean if Mark Zuckerberg doesn't obsess about you anymore? Fortune's story from last week on Twitter's prospects contained some food for thought on the precarious existence of a social-media juggernaut. Once mighty, now...leveling off?... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Ohio’s Lost Decade

   April 25, 2011 05:52 PM

   Look what's happened to payrolls in Montgomery County, Ohio, in the last decade: Annual private payrolls dropped about $3 billion — from $11.4 billion in 2000 when adjusted for inflation to $8.3 billion by 2010 — according... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   Securities Star Chambers

   April 25, 2011 11:26 AM

   Gretchen Morgenson sees hope in a recent arbitration case that, incredibly, found in favor of actual human beings against Citigroup's Smith Barney unit, which had sold as safe what was actually a risky and highly levered municipal... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   The Pulitzers and The Wall Street Journal

   April 19, 2011 11:40 AM

   Reading The Wall Street Journal’s “What They Know” series on Internet (un)privacy last year, I thought, this has “Pulitzer” written all over it. I don’t mean that in a cynical way. Unlike some people (paging Jack Shafer), I do... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    WSJ Helps Keep It Real on Inflation

    February 18, 2011 10:23 AM

    Jon Hilsenrath and Justin Lahart do well to pinpoint exactly what we need to worry about in the inflation figures, which have been creeping up lately, clouding the picture for a range of policy options. This is a... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Goldman’s Marks, Taibbi, Dakota Tea, etc.

    February 17, 2011 04:23 PM

    I like Bill Cohan's clearly written column explaining how Goldman marked its mortgage assets lower than everyone else, then aggressively pursued collateral on its insurance contracts, setting off a chain reaction that crashed AIG. And he's... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    What Dimon, Cutler Knew About Madoff

    February 17, 2011 10:51 AM

    The WSJ has a piece this morning advancing our knowledge about what Jamie Dimon knew about the Madoff fraud. Turns out, the Journal's sources say, he knew a little about this, but not about that. J.P. Morgan Chase... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    Best of 2010: Felix Salmon

    December 30, 2010 08:50 AM

    Salvaging the FCIC: The primer offered by Republicans members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is essentially 5,400 words of nothing much at all: There was a housing bubble. The US government was involved. So were the banks.... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Best of 2010: Dean Starkman

    December 28, 2010 09:23 AM

    The Hamster Wheel. Why running as fast as we can is getting us nowhere. The Hamster Wheel isn’t speed; it’s motion for motion’s sake. The Hamster Wheel is volume without thought. It is news panic, a lack of discipline,... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    The Felix Thing

    November 18, 2010 11:36 AM

    We’ve gotten a couple of private notes expressing concern about our naming Felix Salmon as our new Peterson Fellow to blog about economics coverage, including one from a longtime friend who warns: This is a mistake. You are undermining... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Leakapalooza on the Hill

    November 16, 2010 12:45 PM

    Bank of America previewed and helped to soften its executives' planned apology before Congress today by letting the Times into its massive Simi Valley, California, foreclosure operation. It's not a bad story, either. It gives an... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    A Biovail/60 Minutes Coda

    November 10, 2010 06:13 PM

    Some stories just never go away. 60 Minutes's poor decision four years ago to portray a small pharmaceuticals company as a victim of an alleged misinformation campaign by a hedge fund and research firm has come back to... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    Felix Salmon is the Columbia Journalism Review’s New Peterson Fellow

    November 2, 2010 12:54 PM

    Felix Salmon, the finance blogger for Reuters and a leading voice on financial and economic issues, has been appointed the Columbia Journalism Review’s next Peterson Fellow, writing on the media’s coverage of fiscal and economic matters. Funded by the Peter... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    A “Gate” Worthy of the Name—”ForeclosureGate”

    October 11, 2010 02:02 PM

    The spectacle of the nation’s biggest banks—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, GMAC—halting foreclosures because of evidence of mass-scale fraud among mortgage servicers provides official confirmation of a full-blown scandal that may, just may, mark a turning point in... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Seeking a Media Critic

    September 29, 2010 03:00 PM

    CJR is looking for an experienced journalist to be its Peterson Fellow, a part-time job blogging about and critiquing media coverage of fiscal and economic policy. Funded by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Peterson Fellowship was created to... Continue reading

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