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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Procter & Gamble and the Hollowing Out of the U.S. Economy

   September 12, 2011 01:55 PM

   It's always nice to see a paragraph like this on the front page of the country's biggest paper: In the wake of the worst recession in 50 years, there's little doubt that the American middle class—the 40% of households with... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   Audit Notes: The 14th Century, Gilded China, The Second Stimulus

   September 9, 2011 08:45 PM

   Treasury bonds yields hit another low today, dropping to 1.917 percent for ten-year bonds. You might even say markets are begging the government to borrow money to stimulate the economy. The folks who've been warning us about near-term deficits for... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   The Business Press’s Favorite Talking Head

   September 9, 2011 06:57 PM

   My first reaction to this Bloomberg article was to write this on the Twitter: hey, whaddya know, Mark Zandi is quoted in an article If you read the business press at all, you're surely familiar with Zandi, who's... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Social Security and Ponzi, Regulation, Hamster Wheel

   September 8, 2011 08:58 PM

   The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler has a nice rebuttal to Rick Perry's false claim in last night's Republican debate that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme." Strictly speaking, the metaphor is misleading. A Ponzi scheme, named after Boston... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   FHFA Suits Try to Hold Individual Execs Accountable

   September 8, 2011 04:37 PM

   Jonathan Stempel of Reuters points out something that the press has all but ignored about the Federal Housing Finance Agency's big lawsuits last week: It's suing the banks, sure, but it's also suing individual executives. Lots of them. Stempel... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Detroit Foreclosures, Soros on the Euro Crisis, NYT on Stimulus

   September 7, 2011 07:28 PM

   The Detroit News reports that some homeowners in the city are letting their houses go into foreclosure over unpaid tax bills and then buying them back on the cheap—legally wiping out what they owe. The paper finds landlords who... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   American Banker Shows DOJ Sat On a Bank-Kickback Scandal

   September 7, 2011 02:52 PM

   American Banker has really been doing some superb stuff lately. Jeff Horwitz has a big scoop in today's paper, reporting on a HUD investigation that says banks forced mortgage insurers to pay them $6 billion in... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   Ham-fisted Racism at Fox Sports

   September 7, 2011 02:05 PM

   So Fox Sports hired a comedian to go to the USC campus and make fun of "All American" Asian students in a video welcoming Utah and Colorado to the Pac 12: You're already thinking... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   Amazon’s California Tax Battle

   September 6, 2011 02:37 PM

   While billionaire Jeff Bezos is off crashing spaceships (or wannabe spaceships, anyway) in the West Texas desert, his company's unfair tax advantage is disintegrating too. In July, a new California law forced online retailers like Amazon to collect sales... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    Audit Notes: FHFA Suits, Corporate Taxes, SEC Out of Step

    September 2, 2011 07:57 PM

    I've just skimmed through some of the Federal Housing Finance Agency's huge lawsuits against seventeen big banks, but it was nice to see a lot of great press work cited. Some examples I noticed: The Miami Herald's excellent... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Fannie’s Regulator Isn’t Playing Obama Team Ball

    September 2, 2011 02:22 PM

    The New York Times scoop that Fannie and Freddie's regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is suing the big banks over toxic mortgage assets adds a sort of government imprimatur to the wave of putback lawsuits by private investors.... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    The Wall Street Journal and the Waffle House

    September 1, 2011 08:17 PM

    The Wall Street Journal has a terrific ahed today on the Waffle House and how the company goes all out during natural disasters to stay open. The company, which stays open 24 hours a day 365 days a year,... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    The Foreclosure Scandal Continues (UPDATED)

    September 1, 2011 01:41 PM

    It's clear that the banks aren't much chastened by the foreclosure scandal that erupted last fall and which threatens to cost them tens of billions of dollars. An American Banker investigation today shows that several banks are still fraudulently... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Bank Consolidation, The Depression, Stuart Kuttner

    August 31, 2011 08:02 PM

    Steven Pearlstein comes out against the Capital One/ING merger, which would turn it into the country's fifth biggest bank, with $300 billion in assets. The truth is that there is no great social or economic benefit to Capital One... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    AT&T’s Hubris

    August 31, 2011 02:48 PM

    The Justice Department is suing to stop AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, which would have consolidated three-quarters of cellphone-plan market into the hands of two companies. I have to say I didn't think they had it in them. The... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Boyd on Blackboard, Capitalism Lite, BofA Woes

    August 30, 2011 07:53 PM

    There aren't a whole lot of investigative journalists out there covering penny stocks and other small-cap companies. Roddy Boyd does, though, and this weekend he posted a look at education-software company Blackboard Incorporated, which is selling itself for a... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    WSJ Shoe Leather and Privacy Series Pays Off In Libya

    August 30, 2011 01:16 PM

    The Wall Street Journal gets a big scoop today on the ground in Libya, reporting that Western companies helped Qaddafi create a massive email and phone surveillance system to spy on Libyans. Amesys, a unit of France's Bull SA,... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Stocks Fed, Stadium Economics, Dumb-Question Headlines

    August 29, 2011 06:07 PM

    Gretchen Morgenson had an interesting quote in her column yesterday riffing off Bloomberg's investigation into $1.2 trillion of Fed bailouts: (American Institute for Economic Research's Walker F.) Todd also questioned the Fed’s decision to accept stock as collateral... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Murdoch and American Politicians, UAW, Labor’s Bulletin Board Win

    August 26, 2011 07:37 PM

    Does Rupert Murdoch interfere with his news outlets? Does a bear, well, you know... The Los Angeles Times has an interesting piece of reporting on that, even if it's fifteen years old. And shows how bigtime Democratic politicians in... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    A Good WSJ Scoop on AIG and Wall Street Research

    August 26, 2011 06:51 PM

    The Wall Street Journal has an interesting scoop out today, reporting that AIG CEO Robert Benmosche is leaning on his counterparts whose analysts have issued negative research reports about the firm and who might want his business soon. The... Continue reading

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