The Audit

Market Mess

Troubles pile up for the financial system and the economy

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 8, 2011 at 08:18 PM

What happened in the markets today? Good luck figuring that out (you can't, really). Let's just say it's some combination... More

Blaming the Audience: Almost Always a Bad Idea

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 8, 2011 at 01:57 PM

Marketplace's Heidi N. Moore lays into a listener for getting upset about Wall Street wanting to cut her entitlements. In... More

Audit Notes: Decline and Fall, Inflation Falls Again, Stress Indicators

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 5, 2011 at 08:18 PM

Your Decline and Fall Moment of the Day comes from Standard & Poor's, the credit-ratings firm that was a core... More

Audit Notes: Panic in the Markets

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 4, 2011 at 08:03 PM

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 512 points today, some 4.3 percent, as panic takes hold in global markets. The... More

Excellent Reporting on the Revolving Door By American Banker

Paper’s FOIA request shows a former FHA commish palling around with his future employer

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 4, 2011 at 01:46 PM

American Banker has a terrific story on the revolving door, digging into the records of former Federal Housing Authority commissioner... More

Audit Notes: Some Recovery, Tom Watson Profiled, Debt Myths

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 3, 2011 at 07:48 PM

Calculated Risk gives us four indicators the National Bureau of Economic Research uses to call and date recessions and recoveries.... More

WSJ Fronts Amazon’s Tax Avoidance Strategy

Color-coded maps tell employees which states are safe, bad, and neutral

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 3, 2011 at 06:38 PM

It's nice to see The Wall Street Journal take a page-one look at Amazon's aggressive tax avoidance, something I've written... More

The Wall Street Journal: Murdochification Watch

The paper runs a thinly sourced, and quickly denied, scoop on non-News Corp. bribes

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 2, 2011 at 10:06 PM

Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, unsurprisingly, hasn't done a whole lot of digging on the News Corp. hacking scandal. Or... More

Despite Debt Ceiling Deal, Wishy-Washy Stock Market Stories

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 2, 2011 at 03:14 PM

The House approved the debt-ceiling/spending cuts deal after markets closed yesterday, and the Senate passed it today. The Dow is... More

Audit Notes: The Murdoch Lobby at Work, Davies in America, Audit Radio

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 2, 2011 at 12:42 AM

Roger Cohen, author of one of the worst Murdoch apologies of the hacking scandal, heads to David Cameron and Rebekah... More

Follow a 99er Through the Press As the Money Runs Out

The long jobs crisis, with no end in sight, should prompt us to revisit older stories

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 1, 2011 at 01:32 PM

Now that it's certain that our leaders have gone all in on austerity, despite a 9.2 percent unemployment rate and... More

Audit Notes: What News Corp. Knew, Mulcaire Talks, FT Paywall Success

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 29, 2011 at 07:40 PM

The New York Times has a big scoop tonight on the Murdoch hacking scandal, reporting that News International and its... More

Debt-Ceiling Jitters Hit the Markets

European crisis and other bad news doesn’t help

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 29, 2011 at 03:36 PM

I'm beginning to get that spring/summer 2008 feeling again, and it's no wonder. The latest GDP report this morning signals... More

Audit Notes: Another Davies Hacking Scoop, Greece, The Debt Ceiling

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 28, 2011 at 07:25 PM

Nick Davies lands another big scoop on the Murdoch hacking scandal, reporting that police investigators believe the News of the... More

ProPublica Catches Ally Financial Making It Up

By Ryan Chittum   Jul 27, 2011 at 08:33 PM

ProPublica has a terrific report today nailing Ally Financial (the former GMAC) for faking mortgage documents in order to foreclose... More