From the category archives:

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: There is No Magic Pill

by Alex Stenback 02.10.2009

“At some point someone is going to have to break it to the American people and the world that there is no magic pill…Rewriting accounting rules to create the appearance of wealth, buying up nuclear waste at above fair value and trying to re-pump the beach ball of mortgage lending is wishful thinking.”                                      -Equity [...]

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Words We Like: Michael Lewis

by Alex Stenback 09.17.2008

Michael Lewis on "ordinary, non-financial Americans’" view of the financial crisis: They sensed they’d just been handed the role of the little fat kid in the game of crack the whip, who, at the start of the game, feels nothing at all but then suddenly finds himself launched headfirst into the neighbor’s bushes. We are [...]

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On Risk: Quote of the Day

by Alex Stenback 08.07.2008

It’s become axiomatic that what led to the current financial & housing crisis was too much risk taken on by borrowers, banks, Wall Street investors, the real estate complex, et al.  But could the problem have been too little risk?  Steven Randy Waldman thinks so, and elegantly argues it was the relentless pursuit of risk-free [...]

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Quote of the Day: Kedrosky on Project Lifeline

by Alex Stenback 02.12.2008

Elaborating colorfully on a point we’ve made before – It’s not ARMs that are the problem: Freezing mortgage payments, as Henry Paulson’s goofy Project Life non-plan plan announced today does in some circumstances, is irrelevant, sort of like hoping that fixing your car’s broken window will cause the tires to re-inflate. Paulson’s Lifeline Project: The [...]

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Quote of the Day: Dallas Fed President Fisher

by Alex Stenback 02.07.2008

Speaking in Mexico, of course, since this is BTM International today: "Monetary policy acts with a lag. I liken it to a good single malt whiskey or perhaps truly great tequila: It takes time before you feel its full effect. The Fed has to be very careful now to add just the right amount of [...]

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