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Geithner Plan Smackdown Wrap
naked capitalism —
... Aside from the impressive thumb's down from the stock market, the comments from economists and financial commentators are withering. From the Financial Times' Martin Wolf: ...
Martin Wolf is my hero
Rolfe Winkler —
... An absolute must-read column from FT’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf. He asks, quite rationally, if Obama’s presidency is already a failure. He came in with a huge amount of political capital, with the freedom to propose bold moves that might take control of events. And yet he is clearly letting events take control of him, with Congress taking the lead on the stimulus plan and, even more ominously, allowing his Treasury Secretary to continue the failed policies of the prior administration. ...
$2,000bn US bank plan disappoints
FT Alphaville —
... system and restart credit markets. Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, said the authorities would also subject the biggest US banks to a stress test and provide additional capital if required. But analysts criticised the lack of detail in plans for a private-public partnership to buy toxic assets, and the omission of hoped-for guarantees on wider portfolios of troubled assets and said the plan lacked the cohesion necessary to boost confidence. Has Obama’s presidency already failed? asks the FT’s Martin Wolf . See also FT Alphaville’s “fact sheet” and a separate FT analysis, ...
Links 2/11/09
naked capitalism —
Fire aftermath 'too distressing' BBC Why Obama’s new Tarp will fail to rescue the banks Martin Wolf. The best of many good commentaries on this sorry affair. Obama on Bank Nationalization: Too Many Banks/Republicans Paul Kedrosky. An astute observation Some tidbits about stimulus, recovery, and the Great Depression Ed Harrison Don’t believe what they say John Hempton. Hempton argues that JP Morgan persuaded Sheila Bair to confiscate WaMu and hand it to them. Mayfair owners take their homes off ...
Martin Wolf: Has Obama already failed?
FT Alphaville —
Amid the storm of criticism, the FT’s Martin Wolf asks whether Barack Obama has already failed by leaving so much up to Congress in his crucial financial stabilisation and economic stimulus plans. Herewith a summary: Has Barack Obama’s presidency already failed? In normal times, this would be a ludicrous question. But these are not normal times. They are times of great danger. Today, the new US administration can disown responsibility for its inheritance; tomorrow, it will own it. Doing too little is now far riskier than doing too much. If he fails to act decisively, the ...
Pundits Take Bailout Plan to Task
DealBook —
... The Financial Times Martin Wolf, concurred, writing: The banking programme seems to be yet another child of the failed interventions of the past one and a half years: optimistic and indecisive. If this “progeny of the troubled asset relief programme” fails, Mr Obama’s credibility will be ruined. Now is the time for action that seems close to certain to resolve the problem; this, however, does not seem to be it.” Go to Article from The Financial Times » Breakingviews also jumped into the fray, arguing that because Mr. Geithner’s new version of the Troubled Asset Relief Program ...
Wednesday morning links
The Mess That Greenspan Made —
TOP STORIES Congress, White House seek final deal on stimulus - Reuters Geithner Leaves Questions, Markets Make Him Pay - Bloomberg Geithner Plan Smackdown Wrap - Naked Captilism China Needs U.S. Guarantees for Treasuries, Yu Says - Bloomberg About Bailout Nation . . . - The Big Pcture $3 trillion! — Senate, Fed, Treasury attack crisis - Bloomberg GM Slashing 10,000 Jobs - Washington Post The Financial Crisis Blame Game - Time MARKETS/INVESTING Gold up 1 pct as ...
No Wishful Thinking
The Baseline Scenario —
... It does seem like Geithner’s proposals are a kind of effort to piece together a solution given those three constraints, ultimately founded on the hope that the underlying problems are not all that serious. But I’ll stop there. Sometimes we bloggers compete to come up with marginally more interesting ways of telling the same story. For today I’ll just recommend reading all of Wolf’s post. ...
Martin Wolf: The New TARP Will Fail
Calculated Risk —
Excerpts from Martin Wolf: Why Obama’s new Tarp will fail to rescue the banks All along two contrasting views have been held on what ails the financial system. The first is that this is essentially a panic. The second is that this is a problem of insolvency. Under the first view, the prices of a defined set of “toxic assets” have been driven below their long-run value ... The solution, many suggest, is for governments to make a market, buy assets or insure banks against losses. ... Under the second view, a sizeable proportion of financial institutions ...
#Links
Alea —
Harry Markowitz - Concerning the Current Financial Crisis
Martin Wolf - Why Obama’s new Tarp will fail to rescue the banks
Moody’s shakes up its triple A ratings
Forensic skills at a premium as investors turn to bonds
More active gov’t needed for economy - Fed officials
Half of all CDOs of ABS failed
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That’s nice Timmy, but we’ve got a few suggestions…
FT Alphaville —
... fact that the plan was “weeks away” from completion. They didn’t think much to its effectiveness either, worrying that it did not tackle the root causes of the crisis. Worse for Geithner, some present were “[worried] over speculation that Paul Volcker doesn’t have a more formal role in the process of coming up with a bailout plan.” Stinging. Apparently, GS is even mulling producing a “white paper” on the problems. They’ll mail it through to you when its done Tim, k? Related links: Martin Wolf: Why Obama’s new Tarp will fail to rescue the banks - FT
Friday's Links
Todd Sullivan's - ValuePlays —
... - Um...did they not know who Barry was (ie. not a "shill")? - I'm not a fan of the guy but this is a bit premature.. - This is truly troubling - When things do turn, it could be explosive Disclosure ("none" means no position): Visit the ValuePlays Bookstore for Great Investing Books ...
Words from the (investment) wise 2.15.09
The Big Picture —
... a once-in-80-years’ economic crisis, has let Congress shape the outcome.
“The banking programme seems to be yet another child of the failed interventions of the past one and a half years: optimistic and indecisive. If this “progeny of the troubled asset relief programme” fails, Mr Obama’s credibility will be ruined. Now is the time for action that seems close to certain to resolve the problem; this, however, does not seem to be it.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Martin Wolf, Financial Times, February 10, ...
Martin Wolf on the Obama Financial Plan
J. Bradford DeLong's Grasping Reality with All Eight Tentacles —
... Martin Wolf - Why Obama’s new Tarp will fail to rescue the banks: The banking programme seems to be yet another child of the failed interventions of the past one and a half years: optimistic and indecisive. If this “progeny of the troubled asset relief programme” fails, Mr Obama’s credibility will be ruined.... All along two contrasting views have been held on what ails the financial system. The first is that this is essentially a panic. The second is that this is a problem of insolvency. Under the first view, the prices of a defined set of “toxic ...
Springtime for Banks
The Baseline Scenario —
... But as Martin Wolf put it in a post I’ve recommended before and recommend again, “the heart of the matter . . . is whether, in the presence of such uncertainty, it can be right to base policy on hoping for the best.” That question answers itself. ...
Restructure or punish? Bonus rage wins, for now
FT Alphaville —
... most eloquent commentators on this subject, The Times’ Anatole Kaletsky and the FT’s Martin Wolf, have highlighted, the White House’s timidity and dithering over key economy-related appointments in the Treasury and elsewhere is not only exacerbating America’s own problems - it is contributing to international paralysis on urgent issues, not least, as per Kaletsky’s recent columns on the slow-motion implosion of Eastern Europe. Wolf, in a more-agitated-than-usual state last month, was even moved to ask whether Obama’s presidency had “already failed”: In normal times, this ...
Baseline Scenario, April 7, 2009
The Baseline Scenario —
... as default percentages on underlying assets increased. However, as the crisis has spread from the financial sector into the real economy, increasing default rates are taking their toll even on plain-vanilla assets, such as whole mortgages. (Along the way, the financial sector has moved from a liquidity crisis to a solvency crisis.) Because banks’ assets are sensitive to macroeconomic conditions, it is difficult if not impossible to put a bound on their expected losses as long as there is uncertainty about how long and deep the current recession will be. ...
