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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged debt

1. December 8, 2010 03:22 PM

   The New York Times Demonizes the Bond Market

   By Felix Salmon

   Did you know there's a fight to the death going on in Europe? The NYT covers it today, under the headline "Central Bank and Financiers Fight Over Fate of the Euro." Let's see if we can spot a theme here: On one side is the European Central Bank, which is spending billions to prop up Europe’s weak-kneed bond markets... On...

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2. December 5, 2011 04:40 PM

   A Super Journal Story on “Death-Debt” Collectors

   Bank proxies harassing grieving family members to give money they don't owe

   By Ryan Chittum

   The Wall Street Journal had an outstanding story this weekend on so called death-debt collectors—an industry that makes money by pressuring newly widowed spouses or other surviving family members to pay debts they don't legally owe. Jessica Silver-Greenberg reports that big banks outsource debts of dead customers to companies that use psychological techniques to push grieving family members to give...

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3. April 12, 2011 10:42 AM

   A Vulture Fund Sob Story

   By Felix Salmon

   Matt Wirz probably can’t be held responsible for the headline the WSJ put on his story today — “For Vultures, Slim Pickings.” But there’s no doubt that distressed-debt investors in Lee Enterprises are angry. And they’re angry for a very weird reason: after buying Lee’s debt at a 20% discount to face value because there was such a high likelihood...

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4. June 24, 2011 02:09 PM

   An NYT Default Story Has Finance Industry Tunnel Vision

   The paper gets it all wrong on Argentina's lessons for Greece

   By Ryan Chittum

   The New York Times posted a truly awful story online yesterday headlined "Argentina's Default Offers a Cautionary Tale for Greece." It does, if the cautionary tale is: What are the heck are you waiting for? Are you going to kill your economy and your own citizens so global investors don't have to take a haircut when you could default like...

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5. December 16, 2011 03:57 PM

   Bloomberg Bird-Dogs Meredith Whitney’s Terrible Call

   By Ryan Chittum

   Remember Meredith Whitney's apocalyptic predictions on the municipal-bond market last year? Bloomberg News does. And it makes sure Whitney and its readers do too. Whitney last year predicted a catastrophe in municipal bonds—hundreds of billions of dollars of defaults this year as state and local governments failed to make payments on their supposedly crushing debt burdens. She triggered a panic...

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6. February 1, 2011 01:50 PM

   Bloomberg News Pops the Meredith Whitney Bubble

   The analyst can't back up key 60 Minutes assertions that worsened a muni-bond panic

   By Ryan Chittum

   Bloomberg News lands some real blows on analyst Meredith Whitney in a terrific story this morning. Whitney, famously—or infamously—went on 60 Minutes in December and predicted that fifty to a hundred "sizable" cities and counties would go bust, defaulting on hundreds of billions of dollars of municipal bonds. Since then, the risk-averse muni-bond market has tanked amidst controversy over whether...

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7. October 11, 2012 04:40 PM

   Burying the lede

   "I’m in journalism school. Am I an idiot?” That depends

   By Sara Morrison

   This American Life host Ira Glass recently did an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit. “Sound_Sop” asked him: “It’s 2012 and I’m in journalism school. Am I an idiot?” Glass responded: “short answer: no. There’ll be journalism somewhere. There’ll be jobs. Longer answer: depends on which school.” True. But even attending one of the best journalism schools in the country is...

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8. January 9, 2012 02:34 PM

   It’s the WSJ’s Turn on Romney’s Private Equity Record

   By Ryan Chittum

   Mitt Romney's tenure at private-equity firm Bain Capital is the gift that will keep on giving for journalists. Reuters reported last week that a Romney purchase required a federal bailout, even though Bain made big money on it. The Los Angeles Times found last month that four of Bain's top ten acquisitions went bankrupt. Now a Wall Street Journal investigation...

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9. March 17, 2011 11:30 AM

   The Journal Shines a Light on Modern Debtors’ Prisons

   The paper finds creditors, including folks like AIG, getting thousands thrown in jail

   By Ryan Chittum

   The Wall Street Journal has an excellent story today reporting on the country's modern-day debtors' prisons, which I'd thought were done away with here two centuries ago. Jessica Silver-Greenberg does some superb enterprise reporting, working with what little data is out there to find this: More than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who can't or won't pay...

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10. December 15, 2010 12:27 PM

    The WSJ Is Needlessly Skeptical of GM’s Deleveraging

    By Felix Salmon

    Sharon Terlep's story on GM trying to pay down its debt is a great indicator of how the leverage-is-good meme simply refuses to die, even after the financial crisis. What GM is doing is very simple. The main reason to carry debt is the tax advantages it gets, but GM already has all the tax advantages it will be able...

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11. April 27, 2012 02:06 PM

    The AP on Student Loan Hell

    A 2005 law traps borrowers in private debt

    By Ryan Chittum

    The Associated Press takes a good look at how a 2005 law traps borrowers in private student loans—upending the whole point of the bankruptcy code. Back in 2005, President Bush signed the misleadingly named Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, a giant giveaway to the banking industry that included a provision making it nearly impossible to discharge private student...

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12. February 23, 2011 11:25 AM

    The History of Austerity

    It's grim—all the way back to Napoleon

    By Felix Salmon

    One of the best aspects of being a journalist is that you get to talk at length to the most knowledgeable and interesting experts on just about any subject you can think of. For me, yesterday was a prime case in point: a long and fascinating lunch with James Macdonald, the author of my favorite book on the history of...

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