Many of Mr. Doyle’s clients — mostly small-business executives — have already cut staff and borrowed against their assets, he says. Some are using credit cards to survive and have stopped taking paychecks themselves. He adds that many of their accounts receivable are so far past due that they are considered uncollectible by lenders, which can limit a company’s borrowing options.
The Journal says up next to choke the economy is credit cards. Consumers are increasingly late on payments and the paper says credit lines are about to be tightened. Audit don Dean Starkman wrote about changes in the credit-card business that the press had largely missed here.
Bloomberg writes that the SEC “censored” its inspector general’s report on the agency’s failures in regulating Bear Stearns. Senator Chuck Grassley got hold of the unedited version of the report and posted it.
Ryan, if the problem that caused the US banking crisis is being under regulated why are seeing bailouts need in places much more regulated than the US such as Iceland, Germany, and the European Union in general?
Posted by Carl Stevens on Wed 8 Oct 2008 at 09:25 PM
Carl, it's because they were all unregulated. That's the definition of over-the-counter, as in over-the-counter derivatives. They were as unregulated in France and Germany and Iceland as they were in Chicago and Manhattan. A lot of smart people said it was a bad idea to let these contracts proliferate. A lot of stupid--but vastly more powerful--people (Alan Greenspan) ignored the warnings. The result was inevitable. It was just a matter of when.
Posted by ed ericson on Wed 8 Oct 2008 at 11:19 PM