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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Laughing Down the Prophets

   March 9, 2009 09:30 AM

   I ran across this clip last week, and think it's a pretty eye-opening example of how bears and outliers are ostracized in journalism, particularly on television. Watch Peter Schiff, who heads Euro Pacific Capital and was an adviser to... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   Bloomberg Looks at Merrill’s $34 Million Man

   March 9, 2009 08:40 AM

   Bloomberg keeps the Andrea Orcel story alive with a nice piece today. Orcel is the Merrill Lynch banker who took home $34 million last year as his company lost $27 billion. I like that Bloomberg went looking for whether... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   WSJ Exposes Corruption at the FDA

   March 6, 2009 04:23 PM

   The Journal on page one today shines a bright light on some shady doings at the FDA, finding that Democratic politicians, doing a corporation's bidding, put pressure on administrators to approve a medical device, causing corners to be cut,... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   It’s Obama’s Bear Market, Says Bloomberg

   March 6, 2009 11:52 AM

   We've seen a meme spreading like a fungus in the press, mostly on the editorial/analysis/commentator side so far, blaming Barack Obama for stock market declines since Inauguration Day. Today, Drudge is pushing a Bloomberg story headlined "‘Obama Bear Market’... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   Transparency for AIG Gets a Boost

   March 6, 2009 08:55 AM

   Lawmakers are finally getting seriously ticked off at the Federal Reserve for concealing who is really benefiting from the bailout of AIG, something Bloomberg has been trying to find out—and has sued over—for months. The Senators' carping gives the... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   Remains of the Day

   March 5, 2009 08:11 PM

   -- A couple of professors in an NYT op-ed make a convincing case that the Obama/Geithner housing bailout is doomed to fail. They propose writing down the principal for underwater borrowers. It's very interesting, but seems suspiciously simple—and cheap.... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   Journal Writes, Journal Gets Results

   March 5, 2009 04:02 PM

   It was just yesterday that we saw the WSJ's impressive effort tracking down the bonus babies at Merrill Lynch, who got more than $10 million each in 2008 while their firm lost $28 billion. Yesterday, the New York... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   The Daily Show Eviscerates Santelli and CNBC

   March 5, 2009 11:05 AM

   In the annals of business-press criticism, we are humbled to have to admit that there may have never been anything better than the utter beatdown Jon Stewart delivered to Rick Santelli and CNBC last night on The Daily Show.... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   Bloomberg Finds Conflicts of Interest in Debtland

   March 5, 2009 08:57 AM

   Bloomberg News is excellent this morning looking at yet another problem caused by the giant, unregulated credit-default swaps market. First of all, the wacky copy editors at BN get the headline of the day: Darth Wall Street Destroying Debtors... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    False Balance in the Times

    March 4, 2009 09:51 PM

    This unfortunate lede mars an otherwise solid story in the NYT today on how former Countrywide executives are now snatching up defaulted mortgages on the cheap: Fairly or not, Countrywide Financial and its top executives would be on most... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    NYT Charts the Recession

    March 4, 2009 01:09 PM

    I really like this David Leonhardt column in the Times on who and where the recession is impacting most. It's perhaps the best concise explanation I've seen on what's going on in the real economy—beyond the GDP numbers and... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    TARP Carp Is Hardly Convincing

    March 4, 2009 09:47 AM

    Daniel Gross over at Slate calls out the banks whining that the TARP billions they took are tying them down. He's good on Bank of America's Ken Lewis, who gave an interview to the Financial Times the other day... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    The Journal Outside the Bubble

    March 4, 2009 08:58 AM

    The Wall Street Journal has an excellent page-one story this morning exposing Merrill Lynch's top earners of 2008. It's another in a string of hits by reporter Susanne Craig, who's been dominating the Bank of America/Merrill story. This piece... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Fortune’s Most Admired Banks

    March 3, 2009 12:16 PM

    1. Bank of America. Because you've got to admire a company that apparently makes it through the crisis only to buy another obviously buckled company that will likely cause both not to make it. 2. JPMorgan Chase.... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Who Could Have Seen This Coming?

    March 3, 2009 09:58 AM

    CNBC is now scrambling to undo the damage caused by Rick Santelli's outburst and NBC's aggressive promotion of the harangue. And all it took was a conspiratorial piece posted on Playboy.com that way overreached to claim Santelli's rant was... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    AIG and the $19 Trillion

    March 3, 2009 08:54 AM

    The Times's Andrew Ross Sorkin has an interesting column based on an AIG document he got hold of that spells out how the company's failure would sink us all. Here's pretty much all you need to know: One... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    ProPublica Advances OTS Story

    March 2, 2009 03:50 PM

    John Reich's tenure at The Office of Thrift Supervision was dismal. We've known that for a while. The Washington Post wrote at length about its backward approach to regulation under Reich, who resigned on Friday, and the revelation that... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    The Times’s Incredibly Uninteresting Google Feature

    March 2, 2009 10:59 AM

    I confess I just couldn't bring myself to read the jump of yesterday's 2,600 word New York Times piece on Google vice president Marissa Mayer. I'm just about tired of all things Google anyway, but combine that with a story... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Nocera Explains the AIG Scandal

    March 2, 2009 08:40 AM

    Joe Nocera's column in the Saturday Times is an excellent explanation of how sick the business practices were at AIG during the bubble. First, the setup doesn't mince words: More than even Citi or Merrill, A.I.G. is ground zero... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Fortune: Pimco Too Big to Fail?

    February 27, 2009 01:41 PM

    I'm big on the common-sense idea that if a company is too big to fail that means it should have never been allowed to get that big in the first place and indicates regulatory failure. I've also thought that the... Continue reading

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