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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   WSJ Now Inside Paulson’s Brain

   December 3, 2008 08:56 AM

   The Journal has seemingly been channeling Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for months now. Today's story is so confident you know it knows what he's thinking that it just goes ahead and dispenses with sourcing. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   Big Three CEOs Hit the Road

   December 3, 2008 08:26 AM

   The Times writes that the Big Three CEO's have learned their lesson from the private-jet debacle of two weeks ago. But it looks like they learned their lesson a little too well. So the chairman of General Motors,... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Weird Goldman Sourcing at the Journal

   December 2, 2008 10:06 PM

   A Journal scoop this morning—or at least its sourcing—may have confused some readers. The paper reported that Goldman Sachs's loss this quarter would be much worse than expected, news it attributed to "industry insiders." That's funny attribution, but... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   Preemptive Bubble Bursting

   December 2, 2008 10:24 AM

   The Journal's Bob Hagerty, who did lots of great work warning of problems in housing before the bubble burst, is now trying to pop a bubble that hasn't even started inflating yet. And he's right to do so. Those... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   AP Is Excellent on Bush Mortgage Negligence

   December 2, 2008 09:30 AM

   The Associated Press put out a story yesterday reporting that the Bush Administration ignored in-house warnings of an impending mortgage collapse in 2005, delayed enacting proposed rules for a year, and bowed to lobbyists in stripping out the harshest... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   The Great Recession of 2008

   December 2, 2008 09:05 AM

   Bloomberg, via a source, makes its bid for what to call the crisis. The Great Recession has a nice ring to it, plus it contains an innate hopefulness—that it won't turn out to be something much worse. The Motley... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   GM USA?

   December 2, 2008 08:28 AM

   The LAT's Pulitzer-winning car critic Dan Neil makes an interesting case for the government nationalizing the auto industry, especially General Motors. For one, he says their cars aren't half bad: From my perch, as someone who drives all of the... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   News You Can Actually Use But Hopefully Won’t Have To

   December 1, 2008 10:30 AM

   Here's a timely personal-finance story with information I actually haven't read a million times. The LA Times's Kathy M. Kristof writes about how to deal with debt collectors—something more Americans are certain to have to learn about in the near... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   The Banks and the Big Three

   December 1, 2008 10:05 AM

   The Journal's excellent Heard on the Street writer David Reilly hits at the banks today, pointing out that they need restructuring as bad or worse than Detroit, but Washington so far is giving them a virtual pass, unlike their... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    The Media’s Mixed Messages on the Mall

    December 1, 2008 09:24 AM

    David Carr is right to expose the media's hypocrisy in its hand-wringing over the Black Friday mania that ended up with a Wal-Mart employee trampled to death on Long Island. The media coverage, including an above-the-fold NYT story... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    WaPo and 60 Minutes Team Up on Internet Gambling

    December 1, 2008 08:58 AM

    The Washington Post and 60 Minutes put their investigative heads together for a nice two-day collaboration on Internet gambling that ends today. While today's story is worthy, it's pretty pedestrian. But yesterday's long story—about the cheating at... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    WSJ: What Crisis?

    December 1, 2008 08:28 AM

    This Journal story about Morgan Stanley is off key—and it's a bad time to be out of tune. Hey, did you hear Morgan Stanley is "revving up its push into retail banking"? Sure is. Did you hear Morgan Stanley... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    Chef Executive Officer

    November 26, 2008 09:49 AM

    So the Times suggests you run your Thanksgiving dinner like you're a CEO. But skip the story and let The Audit's Dean Starkman tell you what that would really mean: "Make everybody else cook and take all the... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Joe Nocera’s Mailbag

    November 26, 2008 09:18 AM

    The NYT's Joe Nocera publishes an excellent email from an unnamed banker predicting an impending (and deserved, he says) collapse in the credit-card industry. The banks reel in the consumer, charge interest rates higher than those charged by the... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Bloomberg: Governments Still Gambling on Derivatives

    November 26, 2008 08:59 AM

    Check out this Bloomberg story on a Pennsylvania county getting into derivatives to help balance its budget. The interest-rate swaps, which involve $42 million of fixed-rate debt, guarantees Dauphin County $816,000 the first year and then wagers taxpayers’ money... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    LAT Looks Under the New Century Rock

    November 26, 2008 08:25 AM

    The Los Angeles Times has a good investigation of questionable stock sales at New Century Financial, which was one of the first big subprime shops to go bust last year. The paper looked at the timing of stock trades by... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    The Story of the Small Banks

    November 25, 2008 04:04 PM

    The Washington Monthly has a good story looking at the successes of community banks, which are in pretty good shape unlike their "too big to fail" cousins staggering around the marketplace. Last week, I pointed to a good... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    BusinessWeek Exposes the New Subprime

    November 25, 2008 12:14 PM

    I’ve got to applaud BusinessWeek for its aggressive investigation of dirty subprime lenders getting back into the mortgage game with the help of the federal government. It’s the cover story this week, aptly illustrated with a wolf in sheep’s... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Slate on Predatory Lending

    November 25, 2008 09:52 AM

    Slate has a nice, if a bit too easy, piece focusing on the predatory lending that played a huge role in causing the housing crisis. The author points out the Countrywide/Bank of America settlement that got far less... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Heds Up, Heds Down

    November 25, 2008 09:14 AM

    Headline of the Day, from the Journal editorial page: "Why Don't We Hang Pirates Anymore?" Worst Headline of the Day, from Bloomberg News: "Citigroup's $306 Billion Rescue Fueled by... Continue reading

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