The Audit

Procter & Gamble and the Hollowing Out of the U.S. Economy

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 12, 2011 at 01:55 PM

It's always nice to see a paragraph like this on the front page of the country's biggest paper: In the... More

Audit Notes: The 14th Century, Gilded China, The Second Stimulus

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 9, 2011 at 08:45 PM

Treasury bonds yields hit another low today, dropping to 1.917 percent for ten-year bonds. You might even say markets are... More

The Business Press’s Favorite Talking Head

Mark Zandi on speed dial

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 9, 2011 at 06:57 PM

My first reaction to this Bloomberg article was to write this on the Twitter: hey, whaddya know, Mark Zandi is... More

Audit Notes: Social Security and Ponzi, Regulation, Hamster Wheel

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 8, 2011 at 08:58 PM

The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler has a nice rebuttal to Rick Perry's false claim in last night's Republican debate... More

FHFA Suits Try to Hold Individual Execs Accountable

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 8, 2011 at 04:37 PM

Jonathan Stempel of Reuters points out something that the press has all but ignored about the Federal Housing Finance Agency's... More

Audit Notes: Detroit Foreclosures, Soros on the Euro Crisis, NYT on Stimulus

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 7, 2011 at 07:28 PM

The Detroit News reports that some homeowners in the city are letting their houses go into foreclosure over unpaid tax... More

A Heavy Blow to The Wall Street Journal

An editor’s departure is a big deal

By Dean Starkman   Sep 7, 2011 at 06:47 PM

Anyone who thinks the departure of Alix M. Freedman, the WSJ’s Page One editor, a twenty-seven-year Journal mainstay, and winner... More

American Banker Shows DOJ Sat On a Bank-Kickback Scandal

HUD says big banks got $6 billion, but the attorney general does nothing

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 7, 2011 at 02:52 PM

American Banker has really been doing some superb stuff lately. Jeff Horwitz has a big scoop in today's paper, reporting... More

Ham-fisted Racism at Fox Sports

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 7, 2011 at 02:05 PM

So Fox Sports hired a comedian to go to the USC campus and make fun of "All American" Asian students... More

Amazon’s California Tax Battle

Fighting to delay the end of its unfair advantage

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 6, 2011 at 02:37 PM

While billionaire Jeff Bezos is off crashing spaceships (or wannabe spaceships, anyway) in the West Texas desert, his company's unfair... 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

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

The Wall Street Journal and the Waffle House

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 1, 2011 at 08:17 PM

The Wall Street Journal has a terrific ahed today on the Waffle House and how the company goes all out... More

The Foreclosure Scandal Continues (UPDATED)

American Banker and Reuters show banks thumbing their nose at the law

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 1, 2011 at 01:41 PM

It's clear that the banks aren't much chastened by the foreclosure scandal that erupted last fall and which threatens to... More

Audit Notes: Bank Consolidation, The Depression, Stuart Kuttner

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 31, 2011 at 08:02 PM

Steven Pearlstein comes out against the Capital One/ING merger, which would turn it into the country's fifth biggest bank, with... More