The Audit

A Polk for Pittman

By Dean Starkman   Feb 16, 2010 at 04:41 PM

Long Island University announced the winners of the 2009 Polk Awards this morning, and we at The Audit want to... More

A Grecian Formula for Globalized News

By Holly Yeager   Feb 16, 2010 at 11:20 AM

The New York Times had a strong Sunday story about Wall Street’s role in masking the Greek debt that is... More

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

More indications that the economy drives political outcomes

By Greg Marx   Feb 15, 2010 at 01:55 PM

One of the side effects of what’s been dubbed the “the permanent campaign” is a proliferation of reporting on public... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg on the Financial Protection Agency; FT’s Volcker Get; Norris Gets Almost There; Greece as Bear Stearns, etc.

By Dean Starkman   Feb 12, 2010 at 06:30 PM

--Bloomberg does a good job tracking the dimming prospects of a consumer finance protection agency, yet another indication, as far... More

The Times’s Last Goldman Story Mostly Held Up Fine

But it’s not a zero-sum game

By Dean Starkman   Feb 12, 2010 at 12:47 PM

Yesterday, I said Goldman had a minor but valid point in spokesman Lucas van Praag's unusual public response to last... More

A Good Counterintuitive Piece on an Ex-Goldmanite

By Dean Starkman   Feb 12, 2010 at 10:12 AM

There are a lot of reasons to like this Bloomberg profile of Gary Gensler. First, it's into the weeds of... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg Day

By Dean Starkman   Feb 11, 2010 at 06:34 PM

It’s all-Bloomberg, all-day here on Audit Notes™ --Nobody can manipulate the data ocean in a Bloomberg machine like Bloomberg News,... More

The Times, Goldman and the SocGen Problem

The bank has minor, but valid point in tiff with the paper

By Dean Starkman   Feb 11, 2010 at 11:20 AM

The NYT’s Sunday story on the AIG-Goldman collateral fight didn’t break any major news, but it certainly added some useful... More

Audit Notes: BW on Issa; NYT Probes Long-Term “Care”; Eye on CDS; Extreme Tealeaf Reading, etc.

By Dean Starkman and Holly Yeager   Feb 10, 2010 at 04:43 PM

--BusinessWeek has the very good idea to profile Darrell Issa, the California Republican (and wealthiest member of Congress) whom it... More

All Eyes On NHTSA

Press lessons here

By Dean Starkman   Feb 10, 2010 at 10:48 AM

The business press continues to turn in devastating reporting on Toyota’s problems and the parallel failures of its main regulator,... More

New Financial Sheriff in Town, Part III

Times highlights SEC’s latest crackdown—on an Estonian brokerage

By Dean Starkman   Feb 9, 2010 at 11:35 AM

The Times continues the business-press tradition of hailing new regulators as saviors from the previous bad regulators. "S.E.C. Enforcers Focus... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg Backs the Buck; WSJ on Future State Taxes; Big Money vs. Student Loansharks; Mortgage Banker Schadenfreude, etc.

By Dean Starkman and Holly Yeager   Feb 8, 2010 at 06:18 PM

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner did his best on ABC News’s “This Week” to shoot down Moody’s speculation that the U.S.... More

The Wall Street End Game

By Dean Starkman   Feb 8, 2010 at 10:56 AM

Barry Ritholtz sees no new news in yesterday’s Times piece recreating the AIG/Goldman talks, which forced the insurer to hand... More

Audit Notes: Wessel on Press Failure; Cohan On a Bailout Mystery Pair; NYT on Student Loans, etc.

By Dean Starkman   Feb 5, 2010 at 06:28 PM

--David Wessel, the WSJ's economics editor, displayed admirable candor to a roomful of his financial press colleagues, I thought, in... More

Bond Market Blow-Ups

By Holly Yeager   Feb 5, 2010 at 02:21 PM

If another reminder is needed that we should all pay more attention to the bond market, the Greek debt crisis... More