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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   The Newsweek Numbers

   August 4, 2010 07:55 PM

   If you want to see why the business model of the so-called legacy media is screwed, look no further than Newsweek, which sold the other day for $1 plus the assumption of $70 million or so of debt. The Daily... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   MoJo Muckrakes the Foreclosure Sweatshops

   August 4, 2010 02:42 PM

   Mother Jones has the must-read of the week: A superb investigation by Andy Kroll into one of the nation's biggest foreclosure mills. We've got backdated documents, pre-dated documents, doctored documents, lawyers forced to sign docs without reading them, gouging,... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Audit Notes: KKR Tax Avoidance, Manufacturing Politics, Freelancing

   August 3, 2010 08:51 PM

   Fortune's Allan Sloan has a good column this week examining how Henry Kravis of KKR and others in the private-equity and corporate world get out of paying taxes by having their shareholders pay for them. Sloan says KKR and... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   The Journal Is Mixed on Deutsche Bank Conflicts

   August 3, 2010 02:37 PM

   The Wall Street Journal has a long page-one look at Deutsche Bank and how it played both sides of the subprime game. It's good, but it could have been better. Here's how the WSJ describes what Deutsche did: The... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Brits on America, Credit Cards and Subprime, Interchange

   August 2, 2010 08:14 PM

   Edward Luce of the Financial Times on Saturday had one of the better stories I've read lately on the plight of the middle class in America. It's a long read and worth it. It's well reported and well written,... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   WSJ Turns Over the Privacy Rock Online

   August 2, 2010 03:13 PM

   The Wall Street Journal kicked off a series on online privacy this weekend with outstanding coverage of how the ad industry tracks your activity online. It tested the top 50 websites to see how much they track you. Read... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Illiquid Lehman, Drumbeat.org, Markets Rule

   July 30, 2010 07:58 PM

   The blogger Economics of Contempt writes that Lehman misrepresented its liquidity in the days before it failed: It's disappointing that this issue has been almost completely overlooked, because the brazenness of their misrepresentation was shocking. I think the best... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   The SEC Slaps Citi for Concealing $43 Billion in Toxic Assets

   July 30, 2010 07:34 PM

   So Citigroup misleads investors in 2007 about tens of billions of dollars of subprime assets it would eventually take huge losses on, and the SEC settles with it for $75 million. Citi shareholders (which very much include you and... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   WSJ Buries Wylys Story, Ignores GOP Angle

   July 30, 2010 03:54 PM

   The SEC is charging the billionaire Wyly brothers with a massive fraud involving $550 million in ill-gotten gains from a scheme it says involved insider trading, overseas accounts, and front companies Big story, no? But how big? The Financial Times's... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Obama, Labor Buster; BP Board’s Blame; Google Pollution

    July 29, 2010 08:24 PM

    The Washington Post had a good story last week looking at the striking disparities between autoworkers who were on the line before the crisis and those who started after unions agreed to slash wages for new hires. About half... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    BP Defines Deviancy Down

    July 29, 2010 07:24 PM

    The national press stuffs a big story today on a massive new oil spill in the Kalamazoo River. Size, of course, is all about context. And unfortunately for the Michiganders affected by it, it comes in the wake of the... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    WSJ Looks at the Overdraft Bottom Feeders

    July 29, 2010 09:59 AM

    The Wall Street Journal is terrific this morning to throw the spotlight on the seedy cottage industry that feeds off the overdraft-fee racket. Starting on the 15th, banks won't be able to charge their $35 overdraft fees (which are... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Moody’s Market, Revolving Door, Tables Turned on Zuck

    July 28, 2010 07:13 PM

    Kevin Hall of McClatchy has a great scoop on Moody's CEO's suspiciously timed stock sales. In one case, CEO Ray McDaniel sold 100,000 shares of Moody's stock on the same day that the Securities and Exchange Commission notified Moody's... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Yglesias and McArdle Miss on Interchange Fees

    July 28, 2010 05:46 PM

    Matt Yglesias is defending the interchange industry, which transfers money from the poor to the rich—all through hidden fees. Once you keep in mind the fact that the median household income in 2008 was slightly above $52,000 it’s not... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Apple’s Controlling Instincts Hit Time and SI

    July 28, 2010 01:57 PM

    The Wall Street Journal's approach to charging the iPad has been the smartest of any of the media. The Journal app is free in the iTunes store, so you can download it and check it out. Even after a trial... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Audit Notes: GE Corruption, Poor Subsidizing the Rich, Takedown

    July 27, 2010 08:55 PM

    Footnoted's Theo Francis spotlights an eye-raising settlement by GE, which essentially confessed to bribing foreign officials (in Iraq, no less) to get contracts. GE has to forfeit the $22.5 million it made from the contracts and gets a million-dollar... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    Seven Top-Paid CEOs Lost Shareholders’ Money in the 2000s

    July 27, 2010 06:24 PM

    The Wall Street Journal runs the numbers on the Top 25 Highest Paid CEOs of the Decade and they are, as you ought to expect, egregious. Four of the top 10 and seven of the top 17 lost their... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    Reuters Gets a Wall Street Take on Warren

    July 27, 2010 10:52 AM

    What would it sound like on Wall Street if we got a regulator like, say, Elizabeth Warren, who is resolutely not captured by the industry she regulates? Something like sputtering rage: "I get disgusted every time I hear her speak.... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Angelides; Goldman Sachs; Broke, Fat, and Stoned

    July 26, 2010 08:31 PM

    In non-polo news, the Financial Times scooped this morning that the Financial Crisis Inquiry (aka Angelides) Commission is threatening to audit Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs is facing a threat by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to bring... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Looking the Other Way on Wall Street

    July 26, 2010 05:54 PM

    Gretchen Morgenson had an excellent column in yesterday's Times that gets at one of the core issues if criminal cases on Wall Street are ever to be brought for the financial crisis it fueled. The large banks that... Continue reading

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