Author Archive

Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   What About Private Equity?

   March 26, 2010 03:00 PM

   This from The Wall Street Journal's Overheard on the Street is the stat of the day (okay, it ran yesterday): Nearly half the 163 U.S. nonfinancial companies that defaulted last year were backed by private equity. Now I... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   Justice Says Wall Street Colluded to Gouge Cities and States

   March 26, 2010 12:44 PM

   Bloomberg scoops (and Dow Jones follows without crediting) that the Justice Department says JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and General Electric, among many others on Wall Street, conspired to screw municipalities out of money. And water is wet,... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Cramer Creamed, Elizabeth Warren, BofA Mods

   March 25, 2010 08:45 PM

   Reason No. 5 billion not to listen to Jim Cramer or other market snake-oil salesmen: Jim Cramer said on CNBC's Mad Money that he made a mistake when he recommended investors to sell their stocks ahead of voting... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   LA Times Sees an Oncoming Option ARM Wave

   March 25, 2010 02:42 PM

   The Los Angeles Times looks at the possible impending Option-ARM crisis, something we've asked for more coverage of for a good while now: In a wave cresting through the coming two years, most of the estimated 900,000 borrowers... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Newspaper Ads Tumbled to 1963 Levels Last Year

   March 25, 2010 09:24 AM

   The New York Times reports that newspaper advertising tanked by more than 27 percent last year, shedding $10 billion from 2008. Online advertising swooned more than 11 percent, which would largely be, I suspect, because it's so tied to... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Tax Break, Lehman CEO, WSJ Sports

   March 24, 2010 10:58 PM

   The Journal is good to front a story on tax goodies for corporations, noting that JPMorgan Chase is about to get a tax break worth up to $1.4 billion even though TARP recipients aren't supposed to be eligible. This... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Too Big to Fail and Reform

   March 24, 2010 06:14 PM

   Simon Johnson of Baseline Scenario points to a tough amendment to the not-so-tough Dodd financial-reform bill (so not-so-tough, in fact, that Larry Kudlow calls it "terrific free market reform!") to ask whether the Volcker Rules live. Those are... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   The Long Short

   March 24, 2010 11:01 AM

   Bloomberg has an interesting tale about hedge-fund biggie Bill Ackman's "greatest short ever," in an excerpt of a forthcoming book by reporter Christine Richard. Ackman saw way back in 2002 that monoline insurer MBIA was headed for deep trouble.... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Hapless SEC, Murdoch’s Mega-Losses, BofA Repo 105

   March 23, 2010 08:05 PM

   Just when you thought your opinion of the SEC couldn't get any lower, the Washington Post goes and looks at an inspector general's report on how the hapless agency botched the Allied Capital case. Allied Capital had accounting, um,... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    Wall Street Stayed Put Despite Pay Fixes

    March 23, 2010 09:25 AM

    Wall Street is a slippery beast. Whenever it's faced with the prospect of regulatory circumscription, it threatens to take its ball and go to less-restrictive climes. But it's not as slippery as it would like us to believe. <a... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Greenspan’s Gall, Presidentializing Markets, Megabanks

    March 22, 2010 08:13 PM

    Barry Ritholtz wrote an excellent post explaining to Alan Greenspan why, yes, his low-interest-rate policies were critical in the creation of the crisis. It's a good overview of the prominent causes and how they were related. Making loans to... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    Murdoch’s Unhealthy Obsession

    March 22, 2010 02:07 PM

    Richard Pérez-Peña has several interesting bits in his piece on the soon-to-commence Battle for New York between his own New York Times and Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. As I said the other day, the last thing... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Better Cohan, Ernst Whopper, WSJ Walkback

    March 19, 2010 07:00 PM

    I was highly critical of a William D. Cohan piece in the Times two weeks ago pleading for mercy for a convicted white-collar criminal. So it's nice to be able to applaud a Cohan piece this week: Frankly,... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Pittman-Bloomberg Fed Lawsuit Scores Again

    March 19, 2010 02:26 PM

    Bloomberg has won another victory in its battle to force the Federal Reserve to reveal details of its multi-trillion-dollar bailouts—ones it is scrambling to keep secret. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Newser, The Fly on the Wall, and Aggregation

    March 19, 2010 10:30 AM

    Rarely will you see an aggregator state his business model so forthrightly as Michael Wolff, founder of Newser, does today in discussing publishers charging for news: Here at Newser, we're particular eager for the charge walls to go up.... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Hiltzik on Lehman, Regulator Bonuses, iPad Ads

    March 18, 2010 07:52 PM

    Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik pulls a non-Repo 105 angle out of the Valukas Report on Lehman Brothers' collapse: Its move into high-risk lending and the trampling of its own internal controls in the High Bubble years (emphasis... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    Another New York Judge Embarrasses the SEC

    March 18, 2010 04:07 PM

    Will Judge William Pauley III now join Judge Jed Rakoff as one of the few heroes of the crisis? The Wall Street Journal makes an excellent catch today on a Pauley ruling that slapped down a chummy settlement between... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    Problems in an NYT Column

    March 18, 2010 10:15 AM

    There are some real journalistic lapses in a New York Times column Tuesday that quoted anonymous sources about a Lehman Brothers whistleblower who tried to warn about the failing bank’s questionable accounting maneuvers, including one known as Repo 105.... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Audit Notes (All-Lehman Edition): Round-Trip, Clueless, Felix on Fire

    March 17, 2010 06:55 PM

    Francine McKenna of Re: The Auditors weighs in on the Chittum/Carney fracas over Lehman prosecutions. She's on the side of the just here. Repo 105 is not off-balance sheet accounting but good old-fashioned “round-trip” transaction shenanigans.... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Reuters Is Excellent in Digging Up a Health Insurer’s Tactics

    March 17, 2010 05:28 PM

    Reuters has an eye-opening investigation today showing how the health-insurance company Assurant Health (formerly called Fortis) systematically targeted sick patients for "rescission"—where insurers pick expensive customers and find technicalities to dump them. A computer program and algorithm targeted every... Continue reading

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