Bailout and Financial Crisis News

The appropriate word here would probably be “busted.” "My Prius went wild!" guy Jim Sikes apparently didn't realize his car carried the equivalent of an airliner's Black Box.  Ah, well.  Live and learn, Jim.  In the Big House. Alexandra Berzon and Kate Linebaugh, WSJ:  Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday there are “significant inconsistencies” between a California man’s account [...]

Carolyn Said at the San Francisco Chronicle writes: Short sale tax shortchanges ex-homeowners (ht picosec) California legislators last week passed a bill that … mirrors a federal law that excludes “forgiven debt” on a principal residence from being considered taxable income. It covers short sales, foreclosures, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and loan modifications that [...]

“Dick Fuld is going to be bankrupted and he’s going to spend the rest of his life in court fighting legal battles. There maybe others forced to do the same.” -Dick Bove of Rochedale Securities. Bove had  all nine volumes of the examiner’s report printed and bound. (Barrons) > As it turned out, Lehman Brothers was the firm [...]

This will be a busy week with two key housing reports released on Monday and Tuesday: Builder confidence and Housing starts. On Monday, the Fed will release the February Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report at 9:15 AM ET. Expectations are for no increase in industrial production, and a slight decrease in capacity utilization (snow [...]

1) Ryan Avent: Fiscal policy: The “treading water” stimulus: HERE is some food for thought, via Tyler Cowen: “This note shows that the aggregate fiscal expenditure stimulus in the United States, properly adjusted for the declining fiscal expenditure of the fifty states, was close to zero in 2009. While the Federal government stimulus prevented a net [...]

The California Highway Patrol released the 911 call for the latest Toyota to allegedly zoom out of control.  Still sounds fishy to us.  If pressing hard on the brakes and turning off the engine worked, why did it take 23 minutes and a cop with a bullhorn to figure that out? By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press [...]

An eclectic brew of reads today: • One Year Later… (Market Talk) • Lessons NOT to learn from anniversaries (Marketwatch) • 43% have less than $10k for retirement (CNN/Money) • Europe bars Wall Street banks from government bond sales (Guardian) • Why every nation cooks its books (MSN) • Whither securitization? (The Deal) • Slashing the Deficit without Massive Tax Hikes (BusinessWeek) • [...]

Big thanks to Slate for answering a question that’s certainly on the mind of a lot of folks: can California actually go bankrupt? Long story short: Yes. Here’s the nut of how it works. Say the state can't make its debt payments, and no one will lend it any more money. In that case, the federal government can [...]

(Warning: I had a beer or two before composing the following.) I really wish I could take full credit for my title. But alas, I must admit I culled it from Macro Man. OK, first things first. Everybody knows Greece is going to default, because they’re Greek. Greece has been in a state of [...]

(This post previously occurred at The White House blog) The last few days have brought even more evidence that the health care status quo is working out great for the insurance companies – at the same time as it continues to fail American families and businesses. No wonder the insurance companies are spending millions and millions [...]

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