Sunday, September 21, 2008

Weekend Edition
September 20-21, 2008


Robert Wenzel: An Open Letter To Ron Paul Yes, you have lost the nomination battle, but, sir, you have gained an army.

Lawrence H. White: There Is No Non-Distorting Rescue The probability is 100% that it will turn into the wrong kind of rescue, says White.

Dean Baker: Questions on the Bush Bailout Package The Bush proposal to throw out hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to buy up this debt will do little if anything to prevent another round of collapsing banks. We will again see desperate weekends with Treasury and Fed honchos running around trying to save the next major basket case, says Baker.

Bess Levin: What Happened When Pakistan Banned Short Sellers? A huge rally, followed by a slow and devastating collapse.

Silas Barta: Time To Review The Put-Call Parity Theorem The point to remember is, let's say I want to take a short position in a stock. That would be represented by "-S" in the above equation. But let's say you found out that was banned! No problem...borrow money, buy a put, and write (sell) a call. Problem solved!

WSJ: Short-Selling Ban May Have Loopholes Like I wrote yesterday, SEC Chairman Chris Cox is delightfully incompetent.

Bob Murphy Asks The Big Question: They banned short selling, why not just ban selling altogether?

McCain Says Fed Should Stop Government Bailouts-Good point. He's obviously talking to Phil Gramm, again.

Forget A Seven Day Halt; The Reserve Seeks to Halt Fund Redemptions, Period Has $60 Billion In Withdrawal Requests!!

Things That Go Poof The headline below, obviously, would catch my eye. The Fed is now backstopping the mutual fund industry and, yet, corporate officials are apparently still hesitant to park money there. My enquiring mind wanted to know more. I clicked on the story. Poof, Wham, Bam, Gone.

Caught Not Paying His Taxes, Top Tax Legislator Writes A Check Rep. Charles Rangel(D-NY) wrote six checks for about $10,800 in back taxes, and then penned an open letter to New Yorkers Friday, saying he has done nothing dishonorable. File under: Balls, Hypocrisy.


FDIC Statement: Ameribank Fails

Official Statement Treasury Announces Guaranty Program for Money Market Funds For the next year, the U.S. Treasury will insure the holdings of any publicly offered eligible money market mutual fund – both retail and institutional – that pays a fee to participate in the program.


Statement by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on Comprehensive Approach to Market Developments The federal government must implement a program to remove these illiquid assets that are weighing down our financial institutions and threatening our economy.

Deepak Lal Elected President of the Mont Pelerin Society His book, Unintended Consequences includes explanations for the growth of capitalism in the West based on the differences between encouragement of marriages and wealth concentration among close relatives and Western prohibitions on marriages to close relatives and thus dispersing of wealth.

John Blundell On Sudha Shenoy 1943-2008

September 19, 2008


Robert Wenzel: In Defense Of 'Rumor' Mongering Short Sellers Investment banking stocks are crashing and regulators are all in a huff. They are aggressively harassing short-sellers.


Robert Higgs: Episodes of Crisis and Abrupt Growth of Government Leave Legacies These legacies, which may be institutional or ideological, sometimes lie dormant for long periods before they exert effects on the course of events.


Paul Krugman: Comrade Paulson Seizes the Economy’s Commanding Heights Top U.S. financial officials emerged from a briefing with congressional leaders Thursday night with an agreement to work quickly toward a broad-ranging fix for the crisis roiling U.S. and world financial markets.

Eric Salzman: "Time to Launch Operation Stalin!"Early this afternoon when Putnam closed their Money Market Fund and BNY Mellon broke the buck I think the Government issued the order to launch "Operation Stalin".


Felix Salmon: When Regulators Panic Maybe this is just the financial equivalent of x-raying shoes at the airport: it makes it look as though Something Is Being Done

Barry Ritholtz: The US Is Now a Banana RepublicThis is nothing short of a total panic by people who have no clue what they are doing. And to think, I mocked Russia for being a nation run by market commies.


Mike Hammill: What’s A Swap Line? The currency swap lines were designed to inject liquidity, which can help bring rates down.

Pauk Kedrosky: The SEC Is Blocking Shorting of NAHC, Which Is Nigerian Aviation Holding Company It's not enough they have all the best scams; they get shorts blocked too.

Paul Kedrosky: Silver State Bancorp Is on the Short Sale Ban List It's a failed bank already seized by the FDIC.


PEU: Carlyle Group's Founders at $2.7 Billion Their growth under the Bush administration has been spectacular.

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