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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Bloomberg Hits the Washington Consensus

   December 10, 2008 08:31 AM

   Bloomberg has an excellent story this morning about how the free-trade policies foisted upon poor countries by rich ones have ended up making it harder for the former to feed themselves. Bloomberg tells the story through the problems of... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   The Journal Gets a Scalp

   December 9, 2008 08:52 AM

   A day after the Journal went page one with a story about Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain begging the board for a $10 million bonus, the company decided to give him nothing, the paper says today. Score one... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Tribune Aftermath

   December 9, 2008 08:32 AM

   The NYT's Andrew Ross Sorkin has an excellent column today on Tribune. He slams a list of players, including the company's board for knowingly putting the company—and especially its employees—at serious risk by selling to a man with no... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   Cookie-Company Crisis Makes WSJ and NYT

   December 8, 2008 12:20 PM

   Jeffrey D. Austen lost his job making cookies in Ohio. Some ambitious PR firm needs to hire him, stat. It looks to me like he scored a PR coup this weekend, landing a page-one story in The Wall Street Journal... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Journal Pushing Free Trade on Its News Pages

   December 8, 2008 11:13 AM

   This Journal headline is irritating: Hard Times Offer a Chance To Overcome Protectionism Some of us fervently hope that the hard times offer a chance to overcome free-tradeism. What's the WSJ doing with a slanted headline like that? Leave... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   The Ratings Scam

   December 8, 2008 10:25 AM

   Gretchen Morgenson in yesterday's Times keeps her eye on the ball with a look at one of the biggest scandals of the last decade, the ratings-agency debacle. The paper gave it very nice display with multiple columns above the... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Tribune on the Brink

   December 8, 2008 09:47 AM

   The Journal scooped last night that Tribune Company may file for bankruptcy this week. The other papers follow suit (not in bankruptcy—give that a few months) and while this news shouldn't be too surprising to anyone in the news... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   WSJ is Super on Reserve Primary Fund Story

   December 8, 2008 08:33 AM

   The Journal is excellent this morning with an in-depth report on the Reserve Primary Fund, the money-market fund that "broke the buck" in September and was a key contributor to the wave of panic that hit in the middle... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   NYT’s Norris Tweaks Trump

   December 5, 2008 01:05 PM

   Floyd Norris has some good clean fun with Donald Trump and Deutsche Bank, whom Trump is suing in a brazen bid to get out of a $40 million payment. In the process, the column illustrates a lot of what... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    Audit Interview: Jesse Eisinger

    December 5, 2008 11:36 AM

    Before joining Conde Nast Portfolio, Jesse Eisinger had already compiled a record of skeptical reporting on and analysis of Wall Street as a reporter and as a columnist for the The Wall Street Journal. His time at Portfolio has roughly... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Rupert: Get Me That Bush House Story!

    December 5, 2008 10:05 AM

    In the annals of stories The Wall Street Journal would not have done, much less placed on A3, pre-Rupert Murdoch, here's a prime example: Bushes Buy Dallas Home for Residence Really? Tell me more! Here's the lede: President George... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    Questions for the WSJ on B of A

    December 5, 2008 09:10 AM

    The Journal has some amusing tidbits in its story on the Bank of America shareholder vote scheduled for today on its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Merrill brokers have teasingly mocked the "spirit points" that Bank of America managers dole... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    Buck-Breaking and Lawsuit-Shaking

    December 5, 2008 08:30 AM

    The Times has a worthy story this morning looking at a bizarre move by the Reserve Primary Fund to protect itself from lawsuits. Reserve is the money-market fund that "broke the buck" in September after its Lehman assets were... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Deflation? Try Some Legal Price Fixing

    December 4, 2008 10:42 AM

    The Journal has an interesting story on retailers hiring "police" to ferret out discounters selling their products below the "minimum advertised price", which is illegal after a Supreme Court ruling last year. Basically, retailers don't want others selling their products... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Citi Dump

    December 4, 2008 10:01 AM

    Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil has a great column today on Citigroup not coming clean on its buckled balance sheet. Let's say a company's board or management concludes mid- quarter that big charges to earnings are needed to write down impaired assets.... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    NYT’s Saturn Story Missing a Few Rings

    December 4, 2008 09:09 AM

    The Times has an interesting idea for a story on Saturn and what might have been for General Motors, but the effort is incomplete: The story needed a lot more fleshing out. The lede shows promise: General Motors has... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    The Wall Street Journal and Xinhua

    December 4, 2008 08:55 AM

    The Journal, which I said yesterday was writing as if it was now inside Hank Paulson's head, at least attributes its scoop today, though it continues to channel him on his plan to reduce mortgage rates to 4.5 percent: Treasury... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    WSJ Watchdogs Sketchy Conseco Insurance Move

    December 3, 2008 10:33 AM

    The Journal has a nice story today shining a light on the Conseco insurance company offloading some unprofitable long-term-care policies into a trust that may not be able to cover them. The trust will pay claims from a pool of... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Analyze This!

    December 3, 2008 09:33 AM

    Bloomberg posts a short news story on some UBS analyst trying to make a name for himself by coming up with an outlandish positive number at a time when nobody else is optimistic. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index,... Continue reading

20. 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

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