SOME INDUSTRIES REALLY ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
This seems wrong-headed in a very basic way: . . . There is a pervasive myth that banks are different — special, somehow — from all…
IT SURE DIDN’T SEEM LIKE THEY WERE GETTING OFF EASY AT THE TIME
Writing in The Atlantic, the highly overrated Mohamed El-Erian warns that banks aren’t out of the woods yet: [T]here is the even trickier challenge of restoring…
PEOPLE ARE FORMING HOUSEHOLDS AGAIN. GOOD.
More happy news for the housing market. The rate of household formation is back to its old self: Household growth averaged about 500,000 per year from…
THE CFPB’S ABILITY-TO-PAY RULE IS EVEN MORE USELESS THAN YOU THOUGHT
Despite the housing crackup and everything that followed from it, the federal government just can’t bring itself to stop pushing homeownership for subprime borrowers. Caroline Baum…
BAY AREA HOMEBUYERS SUDDENLY ACTING LIKE HOUSING BUST NEVER HAPPENED
Speaking of housing, the Bay Area market sure is bouncing back nicely. The Bay Area’s housing market posted strong gains in December, capping off a year…
THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG. INCOMING TREASURY SECRETARY ALREADY A GOP NON-FAVORITE.
John Boehner is apparently no Jack Lew fan, says Rober Samuelson: Lew once had a reputation as a technocrat who bridged partisan differences. But this image…
THIS WOULD CERTAINLY GET THE MARKETS’ ATTENTION
The New York Sun endorses Grant’s: “Lower the Debt Ceiling.” The latest headline sits atop one of the newsletter’s classic editorials. “Since 1917,” it quotes its…
TO ABSOLUTELY NO ONE’S SURPRISE, SMALL-BANK M&A STARTS TO STIR IN EARNEST
In Minnesota, this cycle’s dynamic of bank M&A is emerging right on schedule: Several community bankers in the buyer’s seat said they think the growing regulatory…
HOMEBUILDERS REBOUNDING, BUT COULD USE A LITTLE HELP FROM THE BANKS
Builder confidence hits its highest level in more than six years, says the National Association of Homebuilders. But the things could be even better than the…
IT’S OFFICIAL: GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT IN G.M. IS A STINKER
Let me get this straight: the government forces the big banks to take TARP infusions they neither want nor need, makes money on the deal, and…