The Audit

The Economy Is Much Worse Than the Numbers Say

By Ryan Chittum   May 1, 2009 at 09:15 AM

Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture said a couple of days ago that the abysmal GDP numbers, down 6.1 percent... More

Remember Eminent Domain? The Journal Does

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 30, 2009 at 05:28 PM

Good for The Wall Street Journal for putting eminent domain back in the news. We haven't heard much about the... More

CDO Complexity in Context

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 30, 2009 at 02:15 PM

Thought you were the only one who really doesn't understand collateralized debt obligations or, better yet, CDO-Squareds? Rest easy. No... More

Bloomberg: Schapiro’s FINRA Dumped Debt Early

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 30, 2009 at 09:29 AM

Bloomberg has a good scoop on FINRA's, the financial industry's self-regulator, suspiciously well-timed exit from the auction-rated securities market. FINRA... More

The FT, Germany, and the Weimar Republic

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 29, 2009 at 04:44 PM

This FT story seems like a reach to me. It reports that Germany is abuzz that the financial crisis resembles... More

WSJ Scoop on Citi’s $100 Million Man

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 29, 2009 at 01:41 PM

The Journal has a nice scoop that Citigroup is begging the government to let it pay big bonuses to "key... More

Yet Another Reason to Dislike Securitization

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 29, 2009 at 09:20 AM

The Rortybomb blog has an illuminating post on how the mortgage industry used credit scores to replace old-fashioned due diligence—and... More

Bronte Capital with a Major Scoop on Alleged Fraudster

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 06:12 PM

John Hempton the excellent Aussie blogger who writes Bronte Capital appears to have a blockbuster of a scoop. A Connecticut... More

FDIC’s Pitch to End “Too Big to Fail”

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 04:52 PM

Is it me or does it seem like FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair is about the only person in Washington who... More

NYT’s GM Lede Is in the Trunk

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 11:34 AM

The New York Times leads its front page with news of the latest General Motors plan for its future, but... More

SEC Follows Journal’s Ponzi Story

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 09:07 AM

Remember that awesome Wall Street Journal story a couple of weeks ago on the shady financier Danny Pang? It took... More

NYT, Portfolio Profiles Land a One-Two Punch on Geithner

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 27, 2009 at 03:20 PM

Tim Geithner is the subject of two major profiles in recent days. He doesn't come out so well in either... More

NY Fed Releases Geithner’s Schedule

But don’t go calling it a FOIA

By Clint Hendler   Apr 27, 2009 at 03:13 PM

Last night, on its Web site, The New York Times released a 5,000 word piece, by Gretchen Morgensen and Jo... More

Condé Nast Shuts Down Portfolio

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 27, 2009 at 12:56 PM

The writing has pretty much been on the wall for Portfolio since the recent news that it had a staggering... More

The Newspaper Death Spiral Accelerates

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 27, 2009 at 09:25 AM

If you haven't made your peace with the coming wave of newspaper deaths, now might be a good time. Editor... More