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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Payment Protection, Greek Austerity, Inflation Bugaboo

   February 8, 2012 01:49 AM

   American Banker's Victoria Finkle and Jeff Horwitz report on the credit card industry's payment-protection racket and note that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is scrutinizing at least one major player, Discover cards, something that could spell trouble for... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   NYT: Criminal Charges in the Foreclosure Scandal

   February 7, 2012 02:02 AM

   Gretchen Morgenson of The New York Times reports this morning on new criminal charges against robosigning company DocX and its founder—what could be a big development in the foreclosure scandal. It's not Obama's Justice Department bringing the charges. Missouri... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Regressive Taxes, Another Task Force, Keller on Copyright

   February 7, 2012 12:38 AM

   Kevin Drum looks at how regressive taxes are at the state and local level, an issue that doesn't get nearly enough attention. While the federal system is progressive overall, even after taking into account payroll taxes, the well-off pay... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   Bad Math From the WSJ Opinion Pages

   February 6, 2012 07:41 PM

   Brad DeLong catches The Wall Street Journal editorial page in some hilariously bad math. Here's Stephen Moore: Federal workers on balance still receive much better benefits and pay packages than comparable private sector workers, the Congressional Budget Office... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Minimum Wage and the Recession, Facebook’s Numbers, Most Powerless

   February 3, 2012 06:44 PM

   The Wall Street Journal runs an editorial today criticizing Mitt Romney for his support for increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation. Few policies are as destructive as the minimum wage at keeping the young and least... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   NYT With More on the SEC’s Soft Touch With Big Banks

   February 3, 2012 02:41 PM

   The New York Times has an excellent investigation today that shows in a new light how the SEC lets Wall Street off the hook despite repeated fraud. Edward Wyatt reports that the SEC has given banks waivers 350 times... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Audit Notes: CDO Charges, Facebook’s Board, Deficits

   February 3, 2012 12:29 AM

   Sure enough, the Justice Department charged former Credit Suisse CDO executive Kareem Serageldin with fraud for allegedly artificially inflating CDO values. Two of his underlings pleaded guilty and say Serageldin orchestrated the scheme. The NYT: The government’s case... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   The WSJ’s Sony Story Is a Page-One Dud

   February 2, 2012 07:21 PM

   News that Sony's board has picked a new CEO gets page-one play in The Wall Street Journal, apparently because Kazuo Hirai gave the paper an exclusive interview. But the story is weak, almost entirely from Hirai's and the company's... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   The Old-School Value of Facebook

   February 1, 2012 06:41 PM

   The New York Times's curtain-raiser on the Facebook IPO this morning asks, "Personal Data’s Value? Facebook Is Set to Find Out." But is that really what Facebook is set to find out? The Times says about all this private... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Finally, Fraud Charges; Gee Whiz Wired; Freddie

    February 1, 2012 01:30 AM

    The Wall Street Journal reports, and as far as I can tell, scoops that the Justice Department is preparing to file criminal charges against mortgage-bond traders at Credit Suisse for fraud. The WSJ says two traders will plead guilty,... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Bloomberg’s Big Miss in Silicon Valley Hiring Story

    January 31, 2012 07:14 PM

    Bloomberg News reports on the hiring spree in Silicon Valley, possible evidence of "Web Bubble 2.0." But it makes some big mistakes that undermine its the story's credibility thesis.* Bloomberg says that about half of $100 million market-cap companies... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Data Pool 3, The UK Prints, Copyright

    January 30, 2012 07:56 PM

    Scotland Yard arrested four top current and former Sun journalists and a cop. The Guardian's Nick Davies gives us the context and says it's a major development: And technicians have retrieved an enormous reservoir of material from News International's... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    ProPublica and NPR on Freddie Mac’s Conflicts

    January 30, 2012 04:34 PM

    Why haven't Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae been much more aggressive about refinancing the mortgages they hold? That's a $50 billion question. ProPublica and NPR have a $3.4 billion possible answer. Jesse Eisinger and Chris Arnold report that... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Fukayama on the Crisis, WSJ on Exec Pay, Nonprofit News

    January 27, 2012 06:14 PM

    The Browser has a great interview with Francis Fukayama on his five favorite financial-crisis books. Here he is on whether companies like Goldman Sachs were really capable of committing systematic fraud: It depends what you mean by systematic. Lloyd... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Evangelicals, Mormons, and Mitt Romney

    January 27, 2012 06:06 PM

    The New York Times runs an op-ed headlined "Why Evangelicals Don't Like Mormons," which takes on an important issue but glosses over the critical role fundamentalism plays in the phenomenon. David S. Reynolds is writing about the political woes... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Charlie Rose’s Weak Q&A With the SEC’s Khuzami

    January 27, 2012 01:13 PM

    Audit contributing editor Felix Salmon, writing this morning about Channel 4 reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy's tough questioning of Larry Summers, asked, "Has Summers ever been asked questions like this, on camera, by an American reporter? It seems unlikely. Our... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Mortgage Bonds, Junkets, Digital Hype

    January 26, 2012 08:54 PM

    Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism flags what she calls a "bombshell" analyst report on the mortgage-backed securities market. The report says $175 billion of mortgage losses haven't been passed through to the bonds they comprise (and another $300 billion... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    Wealthy Bloomberg Subscribers Call for Higher Taxes

    January 26, 2012 03:00 PM

    Bloomberg News had a good idea for a poll: Ask 1,200 of its $20,000-a-year subscribers whether the carried-interest tax break, which lets private-equity and hedge-fund managers pay 15 percent capital-gains rates on their income, is justified. As Bloomberg says... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Subpar Tom Friedman, Big Lie of the Crisis, Obama on Fraud

    January 25, 2012 09:34 PM

    Today's Tom Friedman column is even worse than usual: In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    The Journal Takes Us Inside the Google Drugs Sting

    January 25, 2012 06:36 PM

    The Wall Street Journal has an excellent page-one story today on how federal agents caught Google deliberately breaking the law so it could make money off sites selling drugs online. That case ended with a settlement in which Google... Continue reading

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