L.A. Times Quantifies the Dominance of the Finance Lobby

No “obtained” records here or even FOIAs; this info was in plain sight

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 15, 2010 at 06:57 AM

The Los Angeles Times drops some good reporting this morning on regulation and the financial lobby, aggregating publicly available records... More

NYT With More on the SEC’s Soft Touch With Big Banks

By Ryan Chittum   Feb 3, 2012 at 02:41 PM

The New York Times has an excellent investigation today that shows in a new light how the SEC lets Wall... More

NYT, Jamie Dimon, and Too Big to Fail

By Ryan Chittum   Dec 6, 2010 at 07:22 PM

Felix Salmon already dissected Roger Lowenstein's, as he called it, "credulous" New York Times Mag profile of press favorite Jamie... More

The Wall Street Journal Pooh-Poohs Bank Transfer Day

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 4, 2011 at 07:22 PM

This Wall Street Journal story on Bank Transfer Day, the push to get people to move their money out of... More

WaPo: OCC Had the Banks’ Back on Foreclosures

Comptroller John Dugan rejected requests from states to investigate

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 9, 2010 at 09:58 AM

This Washington Post story yesterday didn't get as much attention as it ought to have. Zachary Goldfarb reports on yet... More

WSJ Keeps an Eye on Bank Fees

Annual fees for debit cards could be next

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 5, 2011 at 01:48 PM

The Wall Street Journal does a good job today on how banks are plotting new fees to get around the... More

Audit Notes: Beer Buys Off the ‘Burg?, Apple As Bully, Bank Propaganda

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 14, 2011 at 09:09 PM

This New York Times story, which reports that residents of Brooklyn's Williamsburg protested a Duane Reade chain store coming into... More

Audit Notes: Blame the Lenders, Government Scandals, Corrections

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 24, 2012 at 01:38 AM

Abigail Caplovitz Field at Firedoglake writes a good post explaining why the blame-the-borrowers meme is ultimately misguided—and dangerous: Houses are... More

Audit Notes: Economic Policy Edition

By Ryan Chittum   Oct 13, 2011 at 07:17 PM

Ezra Klein, in his long story (which you should read) on why and how Obama's economic policy failed (I should... More

Audit Notes: FHFA Suits, Corporate Taxes, SEC Out of Step

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 2, 2011 at 07:57 PM

I've just skimmed through some of the Federal Housing Finance Agency's huge lawsuits against seventeen big banks, but it was... More

Audit Notes: Limited Liability, Apple’s “Tons of Issues,” Foreclosure Scandal

By Ryan Chittum   Feb 17, 2012 at 07:44 PM

The London Review of Books has a fascinating piece by the Bank of England's Andrew Haldane on excessive financial-industry risk.... More

Audit Notes: Lobbying Both Ways, SEC Scrutiny, Steve Jobs,

By Ryan Chittum   Feb 24, 2012 at 12:23 PM

The banks have been carping about the complexity of the Volcker Rule, which aims to prevent them from making risky... More

Audit Notes: Up Next For Wikileaks: The Banks, Forbes, Gaming Google

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 29, 2010 at 07:19 PM

Julian Assange is Forbes's cover boy this week. No surprise there. He just turned the diplomatic community on its head... More

Breakingviews Misses on the Fed’s Debit Card Rules

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 14, 2011 at 07:20 PM

The banking lobby is pushing back bigtime against the Federal Reserve rules that would force it to stop gouging consumers... More

Capital One Tries to Buy Too Big to Fail Status

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 24, 2011 at 03:29 PM

Capital One is the thirteenth biggest bank in the country, with $200 billion in assets. It's on a buying spree... More

Elizabeth Warren Is Smeared, and the Press Is Along for the Ride

McHenry controversy shows the media copping out with he said-she said stories

By Ryan Chittum   May 27, 2011 at 11:29 AM

You'd think the press could resist the he said-she said copy when the truth is easy to discern. Congressman Patrick... More

Fannie’s Regulator Isn’t Playing Obama Team Ball

Suing the banks rather than protecting them

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 2, 2011 at 02:22 PM

The New York Times scoop that Fannie and Freddie's regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is suing the big banks... More

Race to the Bottom

A Times story illustrates a peril that is a virtue to some

By Ryan Chittum   May 10, 2011 at 04:08 PM

The New York Times gave this piece as big a play as you'll see a non-news story get yesterday, going... More

Shorting the “Heard”

By Felix Salmon   Nov 24, 2010 at 11:26 AM

Does the Ireland crisis bespeak a major weakness in the Basel capital-adequacy regime? Simon Nixon thinks so: the fact that... More

Supremes Rule for Bloomberg Over the Banks

A big press win as Mark Pittman’s lawsuit pries bailout records from the Federal Reserve

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 21, 2011 at 11:45 AM

Chalk one up for the people's right to know over the bank arm of the government's right to spend our... More