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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Captive Customers

   November 2, 2010 03:19 PM

   An NPR investigation goes right to the heart of the problem with private prisons: Putting a profit motive behind taking away people's freedom. It looked into Arizona's powerful private-prison system and found that it helped boost the notoriously tough law... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Magnetar, Comfort the Comfortable, Minimum Wage

   November 1, 2010 06:50 PM

   ProPublica reports that the SEC is investigating a specific JPMorgan deal with the Magnetar hedge fund and whether the bank let the hedge fund pick assets for a CDO a la what Goldman Sachs and Abacus. Remember, Magnetar was... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Robo-Signers Aren’t Limited to Foreclosures

   November 1, 2010 11:27 AM

   The New York Times does an excellent job this morning finding a new angle on the robo-signers scandal. It's a more widespread phenomenon in the financial industry than we knew. While the foreclosure fraud crisis brought robo-signers into the... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Stopping Wall Street, Kate Kelly, Labor Laws

   October 29, 2010 06:38 PM

   Michael Lewis has a useful Bloomberg column detailing how some on Wall Street are getting around the financial-reform law's ban on proprietary trading. The bigger question is why Wall Street wants to let its traders gamble with its capital:... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Reuters Thinks Big on the Housing Crisis

   October 29, 2010 03:34 PM

   If something good comes out of the whole foreclosure scandal, it's that the whole housing issue, which is a millstone hanging around the neck of the economy, has been brought to the fore. The Obama administration's mortgage-modification plan, HAMP, is... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   Yeah, Right

   October 29, 2010 12:36 PM

   Justin Wolfers makes a good point at the Freakonomics blog: The Democrats will retain control of the House and the Senate. And I’m the only person in D.C. insightful enough to make this brave forecast... If I’m right? Well... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Matt Winkler Borrows a Megaphone, Foreclosures, Weil

   October 28, 2010 07:04 PM

   You've built the biggest news organization in the business press. You have a wire service with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, a Web site with million of visitors a month, a magazine you created that has 355,000 subscribers, and a... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   BizWeek Reports a Bank of America Threat to Fannie

   October 28, 2010 05:55 PM

   Bloomberg BusinessWeek's cover story this week has a very interesting piece of reporting that has flown under the radar. No wonder: It's buried deep in the long story. It reports that Bank of America is threatening Fannie Mae to... Continue reading

9. Economic Crisis

   That Whole Journalism Thing Isn’t So Easy

   October 28, 2010 09:40 AM

   Bloggers rightly criticize the press for focusing on the trivial at the expense of the meaningful, process at the expense of the issues, and for not asking tough questions when given the chance to question the president of the United... Continue reading

10. Economic Crisis

    Audit Notes: Regulatory Capture, Monster Quotes, WSJ on Medicare Waste

    October 27, 2010 07:50 PM

    I'm glad The New York Times is taking such an interest in the potential conflicts of interest among the staff and leadership of Elizabeth Warren's new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—however mild they actually are. It reports that one... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Hiltzik Is Excellent on the CFTC Judges

    October 27, 2010 02:19 PM

    Michael Hiltzik takes an excellent look at that awfully interesting Commodity Futures Trading Commission story where retiring judge George H. Painter says his colleague Bruce Levine promised Wendy Gramm (Phil's wife) twenty years ago that he would never rule... Continue reading

12. Economic Crisis

    The Press Mostly Misses the Inspector General’s HAMP Report

    October 26, 2010 07:40 PM

    The special inspector general of the TARP, Neil Barofsky, released a blistering report yesterday, including pointed criticism of Treasury's AIG doings and the Obama administration's failed mortgage-modification plan called HAMP. So how did the press cover it? Not very well.... Continue reading

13. Economic Crisis

    Leave It to the WSJ Op-Ed Page…

    October 26, 2010 11:55 AM

    The Wall Street Journal runs a column today bemoaning the mortal wounding of the overdraft charge and calling for its resurrection by Congress. John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute takes to the Journal to call for something he... Continue reading

14. The Audit

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

    October 25, 2010 08:13 PM

    A Florida Times-Union investigation finds that the rampant foreclosure fraud in Florida even extends to court summonses. Even the summons, the simple but important legal notice required to inform homeowners that they are being foreclosed on, has... Continue reading

15. Economic Crisis

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

    October 25, 2010 07:06 PM

    UPDATE: Johnston reports that the Social Security Administration now says its data were wrong and it has updated the numbers, which now show that the $50 million-a-Year Club did not boom in 2009 after all. Its numbers fell and... Continue reading

16. Economic Crisis

    WaPo Follows TARP Money Back to Politicians

    October 25, 2010 11:10 AM

    The Washington Post does a good job of keeping an eye on bailed-out companies' campaign donations with this story yesterday. The short version: The cash goes from taxpayers to companies to politicians. This is a nice lede: Senate Minority... Continue reading

17. The Audit

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

    October 22, 2010 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 $10 billion accounting charge because the law will hit the exorbitant rents (interchange fees) it and its peers charge... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    An NYT Chamber of Commerce Investigation Outs Big Donors

    October 22, 2010 09:31 AM

    Now this is how you report on the Chamber of Commerce and secret donors. The New York Times this morning has a major page one piece on the Chamber of Commerce's fundraising activities. Basically, the Chamber of Commerce is... Continue reading

19. The Audit

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

    October 21, 2010 07:37 PM

    A wag sends this along with the note: "Newest use of WSJ reporting firepower." It's The Wall Street Journal liveblogging recapping 24 hours of corporate cousin Fox TV during the Cablevision/News Corp. dispute. I am not kidding. Here's a... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Bill Black, Media Critic

    October 21, 2010 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 the heart of the financial crisis and the ensuing foreclosure catastrophe, you would think that the latest news -- that... Continue reading

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