Hiltzik Is Excellent on the CFTC Judges

The Los Angeles Times columnist digs into the case

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 27, 2010 at 02:19 PM

Michael Hiltzik takes an excellent look at that awfully interesting Commodity Futures Trading Commission story where retiring judge George H.... More

The Press Mostly Misses the Inspector General’s HAMP Report

We turn to the blogs, yet again, to find out what we’re missing

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 26, 2010 at 07:40 PM

The special inspector general of the TARP, Neil Barofsky, released a blistering report yesterday, including pointed criticism of Treasury's AIG... More

Leave It to the WSJ Op-Ed Page…

To print a call for the return of predatory overdraft lending and the interchange racket

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 26, 2010 at 11:55 AM

The Wall Street Journal runs a column today bemoaning the mortal wounding of the overdraft charge and calling for its... More

Audit Notes: Fraud Field Day, Nation on Countrywide, WSJ Win

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 25, 2010 at 08:13 PM

A Florida Times-Union investigation finds that the rampant foreclosure fraud in Florida even extends to court summonses. Even the... More

The $50 Million-a-Year Club Booms (UPDATED)

$10 million a week while the median earner’s wage falls to $505 a week

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 25, 2010 at 07:06 PM

UPDATE: Johnston reports that the Social Security Administration now says its data were wrong and it has updated the numbers,... More

WaPo Follows TARP Money Back to Politicians

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 25, 2010 at 11:10 AM

The Washington Post does a good job of keeping an eye on bailed-out companies' campaign donations with this story yesterday.... More

Audit Notes: Unreasonable Fees, Goldman Looks Away, iPad Mag Sales

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 22, 2010 at 05:26 PM

Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus puts the Bank of America financial-reform charge in perspective. The too-big-to-fail bank took a... More

An NYT Chamber of Commerce Investigation Outs Big Donors

No need to stretch for a story here.

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 22, 2010 at 09:31 AM

Now this is how you report on the Chamber of Commerce and secret donors. The New York Times this morning... More

Audit Notes: Hamster Madness, Times’s Tough Reporting, Fumes

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 21, 2010 at 07:37 PM

A wag sends this along with the note: "Newest use of WSJ reporting firepower." It's The Wall Street Journal liveblogging... More

Bill Black, Media Critic

And a good one, at that.

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 21, 2010 at 06:44 PM

Now here's a lede The Audit can get behind: If it wasn’t already blindingly obvious that pervasive fraud was at... More

Don’t Be Evil, Google

Bloomberg finds the tech giant is tops at using sketchy schemes to avoid taxes.

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 21, 2010 at 12:47 PM

Bloomberg has a superb story out today exposing how tech giants, and particularly Google, are exploiting loopholes to avoid paying... More

The Plot Thickens at the CFTC

A judge accuses another judge of improprieties. But there’s more to the story.

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 20, 2010 at 09:37 PM

Say what? The Washington Post has a brief story reporting that one of two administrative judges at the Commodity Futures... More

The Landscape of the Foreclosure Scandal

Good reporting finds plenty of nondelinquent borrowers caught in a nightmare

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 20, 2010 at 03:59 PM

So what does it look like when the foreclosure fraud machine rolls over homeowners who aren't even in default? Remember... More

Colvin and Fortune’s Big Business Baloney

Swashbuckling titans of industry “paralyzed” by the threat of regulation

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 20, 2010 at 10:19 AM

Fortune again. This time it's Geoff Colvin, passing along the Chamber of Commerce line that "Uncertain of future regulation, businesses... More

Audit Notes: Feds Sniff Around, Hiltzik on Irani, Robosigners Plus

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 19, 2010 at 07:13 PM

The Washington Post scoops that the feds have opened up a criminal investigation into the foreclosure scandal, "examining whether financial... More

Fortune Writer Steps Up for the Banks

Picking apart an apology for the foreclosure scandal

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 19, 2010 at 06:34 PM

I criticized some journalists the other day for perpetuating the silly bank spin that the foreclosure fraud scandal is a... More

The Journal Hits Facebook Again on Privacy

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 18, 2010 at 12:38 PM

The Wall Street Journal continues its excellent privacy series and unleashes another PR headache for Facebook, which is allowing third-party... More

Audit Notes: The Clayton Angle, NYT Savvy, AP on Robosigners

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 15, 2010 at 07:50 PM

Felix Salmon and William D. Cohan pound on the Clayton Holdings story, which popped up again last month at a... More

The NYT On the Case That Started It All

Excellent story conception and execution on GMAC’s bungled foreclosure

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 15, 2010 at 12:08 PM

The New York Times has a great angle on the foreclosure scandal: Go back to the homeowner that broke it... More

Audit Notes: Little Or a Lot, WSJ Hype Fail, Access Problem

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 14, 2010 at 09:10 PM

The Washington Independent's Annie Lowrey calls bull on Jamie Dimon: On the J.P. Morgan Chase earnings call, Dimon promised that... More