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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Fannie Mae Need Government Help

   July 11, 2008 02:00 PM

   The big financial news this week is the sharply increased doubts about the stability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the big government-sponsored mortgage companies. But as talk of nationalization increases and their stocks continue to plummet,... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   Opening Bell: Taxpayers, Get Ready…

   July 11, 2008 08:32 AM

   The Wall Street Journal and New York Times lead their front pages with worsening news on mortgages giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The papers report that the Bush administration is considering taking over the companies... Continue reading

3. The Kicker

   Gramm’s Mentality

   July 10, 2008 03:11 PM

   John McCain’s top economic adviser Phil Gramm, who’s also a vice chairman of troubled Swiss bank UBS, has some not-so-compassionate conservative comments in The Washington Times today. Gramm thinks there’s no recession, there’s only “whining” about a recession. It's... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   Opening Bell: Bailout Bound

   July 10, 2008 08:16 AM

   The Wall Street Journal leads its front page with news that the government has done contingency planning for the possibility of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proving unable afford to keep their businesses going. The consequences... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   The Grievance Culture At Fox News

   July 9, 2008 03:10 PM

   Fox News people like to think other journalists don’t like them because of politics but maybe it’s because they act like jerks. David Carr’s The Media Equation column this week in the New York Times business section prompts this... Continue reading

6. The Kicker

   Underwrite, Sayeth The Fed

   July 9, 2008 12:22 PM

   This paragraph from the WSJ’s Bernanke story today sums up concisely just how bad mortgage lending was during the bubble: For homeowners, Mr. Bernanke said the Fed would release much-anticipated rules next week that would prohibit certain mortgage practices... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Opening Bell: The Return of Regulation

   July 9, 2008 08:55 AM

   Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he would extend the emergency-loan program created for Wall Street during the Bear Stearns crisis and called for more power to oversee the investment banks. The Wall Street Journal, New... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   Forbes Lets ‘Er Rip

   July 8, 2008 01:20 PM

   Forbes' cover story this week is a tough indictment of the private-equity real estate business—and the pension funds that supply their so-called opportunity funds with much of their investment capital. It’s rare to see such a scathing takedown in... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   Opening Bell: Fannie and Freddie’s Grim Outlook

   July 8, 2008 08:38 AM

   The mortgage crisis continued to deteriorate as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares tumbled more than 16 percent on fears that they will have to raise tens of billions of dollars in new capital to shore up their balance... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    Good News (For Once) At The Journal

    July 7, 2008 03:14 PM

    Say what you want about News Corporation’s takeover of The Wall Street Journal, and we have, and the ham-handed ouster/buyout of its managing editor, Marcus Brauchli, and we have, his successor, Robert Thomson, just made a couple of... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    NYT’s Incomplete Bhopal Story

    July 7, 2008 01:25 PM

    The New York Times has an interesting page-one story today about the legacy of pollution at the Union Carbide plant in India, twenty-three years after the worst industrial disaster in history. But while it reports on the Indian government’s... Continue reading

12. The Kicker

    Rewrite To The Nth Power

    July 7, 2008 12:42 PM

    Calculated Risk makes a good catch on a MarketWatch rewrite of a rewrite of a German newspaper story reporting that UBS and Credit Suisse are likely to have to raise $68 billion in new capital. By our math,... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    Opening Bell: GM In Reverse

    July 7, 2008 08:37 AM

    General Motors is considering another round of layoffs of its white-collar workers, The Wall Street Journal reports on A1. The carmaker is also weighing whether to quit making some of its eight brands. The paper doesn’t have specific... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Missing The Story On IndyMac

    July 3, 2008 03:59 PM

    The Center for Responsible Lending, a borrowers’ advocate group, has an eye-opening report on IndyMac, the troubled California mortgage lender. The business-press has too-quickly moved on to breathless debates about the fate of Wall Street houses and other... Continue reading

15. The Kicker

    Skewering The “Green Issue”

    July 3, 2008 02:35 PM

    The Onion works its customary magic in its newsstand edition this week with a special edition “All-Paper Salute to the Environment”, that's as to-the-point a mocking of the hypocrisy of the publishing industry’s green issues as we’ve seen. Inside it... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Burning the Mortgage?

    July 3, 2008 12:47 PM

    We’d like to smoke out a Bloomberg story saying home arson is “surging” as a result of the wave of foreclosures. It’s not even clear from its story that arson is surging, let alone that foreclosures have anything... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    Opening Bell: Let ‘Em Fail

    July 3, 2008 08:35 AM

    Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called for better regulatory tools to help prevent the failures of individual financial firms from threatening the entire global system, report The Wall Street Journal on A3 and The New York Times on <a... Continue reading

18. The Kicker

    The V-Word and Dick Grasso

    July 2, 2008 03:58 PM

    Was Dick Grasso’s win in court yesterday a personal “vindication” for him? That’s what The Wall Street Journal says in the second paragraph of its page-one story. The New York state appeals court ruling—on a technicality—lets Grasso keep... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Talkin’ About Credit-Default Swaps

    July 2, 2008 03:15 PM

    Now of course, we know all about credit-default swaps. And we know that you know all about credit-default swaps. I mean, who doesn't, after all the talk of them in recent months? Duh. And you'd have to be a moron... Continue reading

20. The Kicker

    The Press Drives Out to the Country

    July 2, 2008 11:50 AM

    The press has written quite a bit about how the price of gasoline is making the exurban lifestyle cost prohibitive for some. The old “drive until you qualify” for a mortgage dictum, especially in high-price places like... Continue reading

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