Quoting the Crisis

“Cerberus Capital Management will lose its equity stake in...”
— Neil King Jr. and John D....

Mar 31st

“The whole purpose of foreclosure is to take title of the...”
— Guy Cecala, publisher of...

Mar 31st

“In short, attempting to avoid the need for debt...”
— John P. Hussman in On the...

Mar 31st

“Instead of cutting eight brands down to four in the United...”
— Bill Vlasic and Nick Bunkley...

Mar 31st

“Obama errs politically because the juxtaposition between his...”
— Edward Harrison in Guest post:...

Mar 31st

“If you doubt that investors will some day refuse to show up...”
— Jack Mc Hugh in The Road Not...

Mar 31st

“But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite...”
— Simon Johnson in The Quiet...

Mar 30th

“We cannot have both debt leverage and a hyper-efficient...”
— Marion Maneker in Mr. Taleb...

Mar 30th

“Derivatives activity in the U.S. banking system is dominated...”
— Office of the Comptroller of...

Mar 30th

“Other studies have confirmed the general sense that...”
— Nicholas D. Kristof in...

Mar 30th

“Populism poses serious problems for both political parties,...”
— Will there be blood? | The...

Mar 30th

“We are left to look back and say that Wagoner’s...”
— Howard Wheeldon, senior...

Mar 30th

“We have unfortunately concluded that neither plan submitted...”
— A senior administration...

Mar 30th

“ISDA, which is the only effective supervisor of the Over The...”
— Tyler Durden in Guest Post:...

Mar 30th

“The only way out of a financial crisis is default, whether...”
— Yves Smith in Munchau: Banks...

Mar 30th

“By the end of 2009, two-thirds of the state’s banks...”
— Prediction by Anaheim-based...

Mar 30th

“U.S. and European officials say nations are set to agree on...”
— Anthony Faiola and Michael D....

Mar 30th

“The bottom line is that all AAA securities are not created...”
— James Kwak in Structured...

Mar 30th

“It’s very hard for the government to write a big check...”
— John Casesa, managing partner...

Mar 30th

“You have a problem that the banking system is bigger than...”
— George Soros quoted by Alice...

Mar 29th

“Bank of America effectively set up a branch in a Long Island...”
— Leslie Wayne in Bank of...

Mar 29th

“In the fall of 2008, the firm purchased interests in certain...”
— A spokesman for Goldman Sachs,...

Mar 29th

“JPMorgan Chase & Co. will delay contributions to 401(k)...”
— Josh Fineman in JPMorgan Said...

Mar 29th

“Size isn’t everything: Bankers are famous lemmings,...”
— Steve Randy Waldmann in...

Mar 29th

“The fact that AIG is continuing to expose the taxpayer to...”
— Bruce Krasting in AIG versus...

Mar 29th

“So to sum up, greed (borrowing) is bad and fear (saving) is...”
— Mark Thoma in Fear and Greed A...

Mar 28th

“Commerzbank has warned its 2009 earnings will be badly...”
— Commerzbank reveals toxic...

Mar 28th

“While the magnitude of stimulus has been much less in...”
— Julian Callow, chief Europe...

Mar 28th

“Europe’s extensive job protections and unemployment benefits...”
— Hans-Werner Sinn, president of...

Mar 28th

“From 1802 to 2008, Arnott says, stocks outpaced bonds by 2.5...”
— Stocks Through a Wide-Angle...

Mar 28th

“You had to know this sort of thing was coming given...”
— Paul Kedrosky in...

Mar 28th

“Readers may recall that a few weeks ago, those two...”
— Rolfe Winkler, CFA, in Guest...

Mar 28th

“Real investment in equipment and software has declined for...”
— Calculated Risk: Q1 GDP will...

Mar 28th

“Even during the “go-go years,” the bull market of the 1960s,...”
— Paul Krugman in The Market...

Mar 27th

“Given the existence of “systemically important firms,” I...”
— James Kwak in Big and Small

Mar 27th

“For the second straight month Americans are saving more than...”
— Devin Dwyer in A New Reality...

Mar 27th

“The problem with taxing at 95% is that defining the tax so...”
— Robert Waldmann in Yglesias...

Mar 27th

“According to Greenspan in 2005 ‘we don’t...”
— Geithner Calls for ‘New Rules...

Mar 27th

“There needs to be a requirement that investors who buys...”
— Andrew Ross Sorkin in Where is...

Mar 27th

“In year-over-year measurements, the industry’s occupancy...”
— STR reports U.S. performance...

Mar 26th

“Companies took advantage of low borrowing costs in the...”
— David Gaffen in If...

Mar 26th

“From the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of...”
— FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS PROFITS...

Mar 26th

“As we learn more about the behavior within our financial...”
— Shoshana Zuboff in Wall...

Mar 25th

“What’s the catch? That’s the beautiful thing … there is...”
— D. Aristophanes quoted by Ken...

Mar 25th

“If we do not use current political momentum to fundamentally...”
— Why a second best bailout may...

Mar 25th

“Of particular note is Citi’s delirious optimism on...”
— Tyler Durden in The Ridiculous...

Mar 25th

“Most of the CDO junk, and indeed most of the fancier...”
— Willem Buiter in The new toxic...

Mar 25th

“My guess is that in October, when you learned of these...”
— Jake DeSantis, an executive...

Mar 25th

“Nobody can be confident that the US yet has a workable...”
— Martin Wolf in Successful bank...

Mar 25th

“The signal given yesterday by Bernanke and Geithner – of...”
— RGE - It is time for a special...

Mar 25th

“The money has already been sucked out, we all know it, and...”
— Carson Gross in The Cultural...

Mar 24th

“The World Trade Organization is predicting that global trade...”
— NPR: Trade Expected To Fall 9...

Mar 24th

“Because risk management means managing risk, not just taking...”
— Ken Houghton in Risk and...

Mar 24th

“Reporters should remember this when assessing Wall...”
— Dean Baker in Wall Street and...

Mar 24th

“This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US...”
— Qu Hongbin, chief China...

Mar 24th

“The bank unloaded assets worth $5000 for $8400. So the...”
— Nemo in The “Geithner Put”,...

Mar 24th

“Because we are wired to dislike potential losses, most...”
— Jonah Lehrer in Risk as...

Mar 24th

“Once purchased the bank waits for the portfolio to...”
— Tyler Durden in The Amazing...

Mar 24th

“I find it perverse that pension funds will pay 2% management...”
— Leo Kolivakis in Guest Post:...

Mar 24th

“The problem is not regulatory authority, the problem is the...”
— Yves Smith in naked...

Mar 24th

“The only way to argue that the subsidy is small is to claim...”
— Paul Krugman in Geithner plan...

Mar 23rd

“The key to the Treasury argument is that asset prices are...”
— Robert Waldmann in Fire sales...

Mar 23rd

“If you are going to try to go to war, or to prepare for war,...”
— Henry Stimson, FDR’s...

Mar 23rd

“In the U.K., regulators and shareholders acquiesced while...”
— Guy Hands, founder and...

Mar 23rd

“When the financial history of this decade is written, it...”
— Warren Buffet, quoted by Roger...

Mar 23rd

“I would have thought by now that economists would know what...”
— Ken Houghton in Brad DeLong...

Mar 23rd

“The world is much in demand for competent leadership after a...”
— Swedish Lex in Guest Post:...

Mar 23rd

“When this sense of fairness breaks down, bad things start to...”
— Jonah Lehrer in AIG and...

Mar 23rd

“An alarming aspect of the plan is that private investment...”
— Robert Kuttner:...

Mar 23rd

“Early on in this crisis, it was possible to argue that it...”
— Paul Krugman in More on the...

Mar 22nd

“I keep thinking about the 90-year-old man who lost even his...”
— A former Madoff employee,...

Mar 22nd

“The overarching question is not: why is there so much...”
— Glenn Greenwald in The virtues...

Mar 22nd

“The question is not just why the White House was the last to...”
— Frank Rich in Op-Ed Columnist...

Mar 22nd

“Washington Mutual Inc, the failed U.S. savings and loan, has...”
— Washington Mutual sues FDIC...

Mar 22nd

“Large parts of the financial industry, that includes AIG’s...”
— Aline van Duyn in Financial...

Mar 22nd

“In the middle of this decade, the AIG companies began both...”
— Carol J. Loomis in AIG’s...

Mar 22nd

“What is wrongheaded about this is the assumption that hedge...”
— Yves Smith in Gillian Tett:...

Mar 21st

“US federal regulators have warned of a ‘rampant...”
— Javier Blas in Watchdog fears...

Mar 21st

“The industry does not get it. Or more accurately, its...”
— Yves Smith in Links and Quick...

Mar 21st

“It’s hard to know which is worse: that Geithner was...”
— Glenn Greenwald in Did AIG...

Mar 21st

“The case for stratospheric executive salaries in the...”
— Christopher Caldwell in Not...

Mar 21st

“The banks demanded that the accountants give them leeway in...”
— Accounting Brothel Opens Doors...

Mar 21st

“With unemployment at 8.1%, underemployment (U6) at 14.8%,...”
— Felix Salmon in Replacing...

Mar 20th

“I conclude there are no valid arguments against forcing the...”
— Willem Buiter in Slaughtering...

Mar 20th

“The most likely scenario, should the Geithner plan go...”
— James K. Galbraith in No...

Mar 20th

“AIG bamboozled the US Government (Fed/Treasury) into bailing...”
— David Merkel in AIG — There...

Mar 20th

“Critical details concerning the valuation of distressed...”
— IMF report, released in...

Mar 20th

“The mistake most people make in looking at the financial...”
— Matt Taibi in The Big Takeover

Mar 20th

“Listen, you knew what the banks were doing and yet were...”
— Daily Show host Jon Stewart to...

Mar 20th

“You have the black hole of commercial real estate and that...”
— Leon Black, founder of private...

Mar 20th

“This credit crunch started off as a structured-finance...”
— Ed Grebeck, chief executive of...

Mar 20th

“Here it is crucial that people sincerely honestly think that...”
— Robert Waldmann, answering to...

Mar 20th

“This was not a boilerplate contract. Rather, it was highly...”
— Steven M. Davidoff in...

Mar 19th

“Huge regulatory gaps also exist in insurance. “There...”
— Michael Hirsch in The Next AIG...

Mar 19th

“What lessons can we draw from AIG’s experience? There...”
— Edward M. Liddychairman and...

Mar 19th

“The appearance that this was all an inside job is...”
— Eliot Spitzer in The Real AIG...

Mar 19th

“The greatest beneficiaries were the French bank Societe...”
— Binyamin Appelbaum and Brady...

Mar 19th

“Why can’t Wall Street royalty shoulder some of the...”
— Eliot Spitzer in The Real AIG...

Mar 19th

“You have to wonder what else has to go wrong, how much more...”
— Steven Pealstein in Wall...

Mar 18th

“Today’s tax code makes no distinction between income above...”
— David Leonhardt in Paying...

Mar 18th

“The contracts shockingly contain a provision that required...”
— Andrew Cuomo, New York...

Mar 18th

“A bank run can be a healthy thing on occasion as it...”
— Rolfe Winkler, CFA, publisher...

Mar 18th

“Moody’s rated Lehman Brothers’ debt A2, putting it squarely...”
— David Segal in Buffett Is...

Mar 18th

“Executives say they must pay retention bonuses to keep...”
— David Cho and Binyamin...

Mar 18th

“If you set the surtax at, say, 150% of all bonus payments,...”
— The Bonus Surtax - Finance...

Mar 17th

“So why did we bail them out? Because of the systemic...”
— Why AIG Wasn’t Allowed...

Mar 17th

“To get bailed out yet again, the auto companies have to...”
— Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn...

Mar 17th

Reason for bonuses (don't laugh):...

“The trend is to increase the base pay in light of the reduced bonuses,” said Scott...

Mar 17th

“‘Sanctity of contracts’ has for some time been...”
— William K. Black, Thomas...

Mar 17th

“Governments all over the world are protecting and shielding...”
— Francine McKenna in The...

Mar 17th

“What we have here is a monumental failure of management....”
— Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn...

Mar 17th

“This is a corporation that finds itself in financial...”
— President Obama, quoted by...

Mar 17th

“In the current economic crisis, we see the final demise of...”
— Joel Henning, a law firm...

Mar 17th

“In a full fair value world, to ensure stable...”
— A researcher in May 2007, who...

Mar 17th

“We have moved far beyond financial policy and into the kind...”
— Simon Johnson in Political...

Mar 17th

“First they came for the teenagers. Could toddlers be far...”
— Corynne McSherry in The Fair...

Mar 16th

“There is nothing that can be done at this point to prevent...”
— Tyler Durden in Guest Post:...

Mar 16th

“Chinese government has detailed a stimulus plan to encourage...”
— China details auto stimulus...

Mar 16th

“The CDS contracts amplified the losses as a result of the...”
— Satyajit Das in Credit Default...

Mar 16th

“With results for the quarter now in from 98 per cent of...”
— Alistair Gray and Richard...

Mar 16th

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have always had terms for a...”
— Bruce Krasting in AIG Bonuses...

Mar 16th

“President Barack Obama’s administration expressed outrage on...”
— Alan Beattie and Jule...

Mar 16th

“AIG paid out $22.4bn of collateral related to credit default...”
— Julie MacIntosh and Alan...

Mar 16th

“Tensions in the financial system are approaching the fever...”
— Edmund Conway in Bank of...

Mar 16th

“Given that in 2005 Bernanke said there was no housing bubble...”
— Yves Smith paraphrasing One...

Mar 16th

“I slammed the phone more than a few times on discussing AIG....”
— Ben Bernanke, Fed Chairman,...

Mar 16th

“Years from now, when academics search for causes of the...”
— William D. Cohan in Inside the...

Mar 15th

“Inevitably, the market doesn’t react; it overreacts and...”
— Adam J. Robinson, director of...

Mar 15th

“If a bank or an insurance company like AIG is at risk of...”
— FT.com | Willem Buiter’s...

Mar 15th

“As long as banks are playing with other people’s...”
— Yves Smith in naked...

Mar 15th

“Africa, usually the poorest performing region in the world...”
— Paul Collier and Witney...

Mar 15th

“New rules on bankers’ pay are likely to be at the centre of...”
— Iain Dey and David Smith in...

Mar 15th

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make...”
— John Kenneth Galbraith, quoted...

Mar 15th

“It seems to me that the only explanation of pooling and...”
— Robert Waldman in Why...

Mar 15th

“Well, we here in RIland have a GOP governor who is doing one...”
— RIlands Governor, Stimulus...

Mar 14th

“Japanese exports have fallen 54% in the last 6 months, an...”
— John Mauldin in The Swiss...

Mar 14th

“In a remarkable week, Europe’s secrecy jurisdictions –...”
— Nick Mathiason in Switzerland...

Mar 14th

“We have also agreed to: regulatory oversight, including...”
— G20 Finance Ministers and...

Mar 14th

“If ratified, leaked documents posted on WikiLeaks and other...”
— David Kravets in Obama...

Mar 13th

“In falling only 0.1%, retail sales figures for February came...”
— Jack McHugh in GE and Rising...

Mar 13th

“CalPERS, an industry leader, warned its 1,500 local...”
— Ed Mendel in Public pension...

Mar 13th

“In other words, the idea of a US partial default is far from...”
— Yves Smith in China’s...

Mar 13th

“We have lent a huge amount of money to the United States. I...”
— Wen Jiabao, China Prime...

Mar 13th

“There is no sense here that anything much has changed. ...”
— Simon Johnson in Business As...

Mar 13th

“The final cost of all this to the taxpayer will be, on...”
— Iain Martin in Gordon Brown...

Mar 13th

“But what has happened over the past decade or more is that...”
— Paul Kennedy in Read the big...

Mar 13th

“Sony Corp. and NEC Corp. are also forecasting losses amid...”
— Finbarr Flynn and Takako...

Mar 12th

“We do need a more humane brand of capitalism, based not only...”
— Lord Richard Layard in Now is...

Mar 12th

“Idle factories, moored container ships, widespread...”
— James Fallow in China’s...

Mar 12th

“As policymakers ponder reforms to the regulation of global...”
— Gillian Tett in Lost through...

Mar 12th

“A dozen life insurers have pending applications for aid from...”
— The Next Big Bailout Decision:...

Mar 12th

“By the spring of 2008, Citi, Merrill and UBS had...”
— Gillian Tett in Lost through...

Mar 12th

“For some reason the US has been the only advanced industrial...”
— Willem Buiter in To the victor...

Mar 12th

“Our world is broken – and I honestly don’t know what is...”
— Bernie Sucher, head of Merrill...

Mar 12th

“Between 40 and 45 percent of the world’s wealth has...”
— Stephen Scharzman, CEO...

Mar 11th

“At the end of November, Mr. Madoff had 4,800 client accounts...”
— Diana B. Henriques in Madoff...

Mar 11th

“A number of prominent investment bankers are fleeing major...”
— Matthew Karnitschnig and Heidi...

Mar 11th

“The growing number of suspensions appears to strike a blow...”
— Deborah Brewster in US...

Mar 11th

“Over the past century, Citigroup has repeatedly launched new...”
— Binyamin Appelbaum in...

Mar 11th

“Why were pension funds so reckless in their investment...”
— Leo Kolivakis, publisher of...

Mar 10th

“According to a Mercer study in the US, the pension plans of...”
— David Hunkar in Which OECD...

Mar 10th

“There is a legitimate public policy rationale for regulatory...”
— Conclusion of the AIG Report...

Mar 10th

“Last Friday Treasury agreed to convert $25 Billion of the...”
— Bruce Kasting in CitiTARP:...

Mar 10th

“Given the manifest failure of the efficient market...”
— Willem Buiter in Regulating...

Mar 10th

“In at least eight cases in the last year, anxious investors...”
— Andrew Pollack in Drug...

Mar 10th

“The means to put tax havens out of business are simple –...”
— Willem Buiter in Regulating...

Mar 10th

“Credit default swaps on the financing arm of General...”
— Nicole Bullock, quoted by...

Mar 10th

“Self-regulation is to regulation as self-importance is to...”
— Willem Buiter in Regulating...

Mar 10th

“What’s the difference between high tech and biotech?...”
— Yves Smith in Naked Capitalism

Mar 10th

“It is better to over-regulate now and subsequently correct...”
— Willem Buiter in Regulating...

Mar 10th

“Like Iceland, the UK has an unusually large banking sector...”
— Sean O’Grady in...

Mar 9th

“Derivatives were meant to disperse risk. But at AIG,...”
— Dino Kos, a former Fed...

Mar 9th

“So, every week or so, Geithner and Summers have pressed...”
— John Quiggin in Abort, retry,...

Mar 9th

“Private money invested in so-called emerging countries...”
— Peter S. Goodman in A Rising...

Mar 9th

“The Americans dream about a return to a world of credit...”
— Wolfgang Münchau in An L of a...

Mar 9th

“A seal of approval [for OTS] from the Europeans meant a...”
— Jeff Gerth in Was AIG Watchdog...

Mar 9th

“We should ask, though, why would anyone assume we are better...”
— Thomas Hoenig, president of...

Mar 9th

“Another reason for the bailout was that AIG’s...”
— Yves Smith in Quelle Surprise!...

Mar 7th

“So AIG sells insurance for which it has no collateral,...”
— Bob O’Brien in Random...

Mar 7th

“The solution is really to blow up or burn the OTC market,...”
— Myron Scholes, the Nobel...

Mar 7th

“The Federal Reserve should call in the rating agencies and...”
— John Mauldin in The Law of...

Mar 7th

“We understandably would prefer not to...”
— Kansas City Fed President...

Mar 7th

“The HSBC story demonstrates the murkiness infecting the...”
— Edward Harrison in Canadian...

Mar 6th

“Self-financing is inherently a dangerous game. You’re...”
— Ed Yardeni, president of...

Mar 6th

“A share of Citigroup, worth $55.12 less than two years ago,...”
— Steven Mufson in Corporate...

Mar 6th

“The UK government has to make a decision. If it believes...”
— Martin Wolf in Big risks for...

Mar 6th

“Akerlof and Romer define looting as an upscale version of...”
— Yves Smith, discussing a 1994...

Mar 6th

“The road to economic hell is paved with good intentions and...”
— Simon Johnson in Confusion,...

Mar 6th

“The UK government looks increasingly like a python that has...”
— Martin Wolf in Big risks for...

Mar 6th

“This context underlines the urgent need for the Group of 20...”
— Paul Keating, former...

Mar 5th

“And lastly, the stupid shift in the administration’s...”
— Tyler Durden in Could TALF Be...

Mar 5th

“Everything I have seen suggests that the crisis intensified...”
— Thomas Köbel, economist at SEB...

Mar 5th

“There are accounting gimmicks in pension land which create...”
— Orin Kramer, chairman of the...

Mar 5th

“One in five U.S. homeowners with mortgages owe more to their...”
— Jonathan Stempel in One in...

Mar 5th

“It is clear that there are serious problems in certain...”
— Joaquin Almunia, the EU...

Mar 5th

“66% of potential housing value losses in 2008 and subsequent...”
— William Lucy and Jeff Herlitz...

Mar 5th

“The summary was that they were doing the right thing and...”
— John Hempton in Memo to...

Mar 5th

“I believe that the Bank has by now shed the conventional...”
— Willem Buiter in The...

Mar 5th

“Believe or not, retracing 12-year lows for the Dow is an...”
— Thomas Lee, US Equity Strategy...

Mar 5th

“The nation’s largest public pension fund, California Public...”
— David Evans in Hidden Pension...

Mar 4th

“They would have seen a considerable erosion in value by now,...”
— Malcolm Moore in China built...

Mar 4th

“U.S. regulators charged Sunwest Management with securities...”
— U.S. SEC charges Sunwest...

Mar 4th

“Hyundai Motor was the sole automaker to post a month over...”
— Barry Ritholtz in Vehicle...

Mar 4th

“Idled ocean container capacity on March 2 reached a record...”
— Bruce Barnard in Idle Box...

Mar 4th

“Ford is reporting a 48% drop in sales compared to the same...”
— A Nation Of Mechanics | NPR...

Mar 3rd

“The 2005 bankruptcy law made it more expensive and more...”
— Bob Lawless in Bankruptcy...

Mar 3rd

“Taiwan’s exports to China fell 55pc in January,...”
— Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in We...

Mar 3rd

“Many of the country’s largest employers are being...”
— Edward Lampert, Sears Holdings...

Mar 3rd

“Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal,...”
— Warren Buffet in his annual...

Mar 3rd

“Policymakers are assuming that restoring proper functioning...”
— Tim Duy in When Does Faith in...

Mar 3rd

“Manufacturing continues to decline at a rapid rate in...”
— February 2009 Manufacturing...

Mar 3rd

“In Q4 of 2008 GDP fell by about 6% in the US, 6% in the...”
— Nouriel Roubini in The Rising...

Mar 3rd

“AIG’s latest loss, a record for a U.S. company,...”
— AIG has $61.7 billion loss,...

Mar 3rd

“The long and short is that banks do not have enough common...”
— Creeping Nationalization

Mar 2nd

“For all of 2008, AIG lost $99.29 billion, wiping out profit...”
— AIG has $61.7 billion loss,...

Mar 2nd

“Total auto and truck sales in the U.S. were below 10 million...”
— Calculated Risk: Vehicle Sales...

Mar 2nd

“U.S. securities regulators on Friday accused Texas...”
— Anna Driver in U.S. charges...

Mar 1st

“The pension model is broken and along with it the...”
— Leo Kolivakis in The model...

Feb 28th

“While public decapitation of investment experts who make...”
— Terence Corcoran in The model...

Feb 28th

“[US] Gross domestic product declined at a 6.2% annual rate...”
— Conor Dougherty and Kelly...

Feb 28th