Financial Institutions

Shakin' Things Up

10/25/12

In my most recent Wiley lecture, given in connection with the chair I hold, I argued that boards, particularly in financial institutions, should think outside the box with regard to new board appointments, if they really want to improve corporate governance.

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Read This

10/12/12

An important post about the great industry bugaboo – "regulatory uncertainty" – and the issue of "qualified mortgages," which, as Adam has noted, has become something of a political football.

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NYAG MBS Suit

10/01/12

A few very quick impressions about the NYAG's suit against JPMorgan.  

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Subtly TBTF

09/12/12

An important post over at Dealbook (no, it's not by me) about the difference between the Volcker Rule and general TBTF regulation of SIFIs under Dodd-Frank.

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And the wind blows wild again

09/11/12

Me, over at this place called The New York Times, on the safe harbors in the Code, again.

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EU Update (And FI Reality)

09/02/12

If you've been tuning out the Euro situation, despite Gelpern's periodic updates, today's Times magazine has a since summary of where things stand.

I also think the end of this bit nicely captures the extant cynicism regarding financial institutions.

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Why Housing?

08/31/12

Susan Wachter and I have a new paper out, entitled Why Housing?  The paper is a critical review of scholarly theories of the housing bubble.  It focuses on the question of what made housing vulnerable to a bubble and why it has been so hard to resuscitate the market.  

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Why No Prosecutions

08/26/12

The NYTimes had a very good editorial today bemoaning, with resignation, that there will not be any serious prosecutions of senior bank executives or institutions for the financial crisis.  The biggest fish to be caught was Lee Farkas. Who? That's the point.

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Do Your Research, Ezra Klein!

08/21/12

Ezra Klein has joined the melee over the Obama Administration's housing policy failure with an apologia for the Administration.  Klein argues: 

The right question on housing, then, is not whether the administration’s policies proved insufficient. They did. It’s what would have been better. And that’s not a question that either Appelbaum or Goldfarb conclusively answer. It’s not even a question that the most credible critics of the Obama administration’s housing policies conclusively answer.

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Zywicki's Interchange Settlement Balderdash

08/21/12

I was really hoping that I would be able to go at least a year without having to call Todd Zywicki out for his comments on some consumer finance issue.  But it's not to be. Zywicki has weighed in on the interchange settlement, proclaiming it to be great thing for consumers.  Mission accomplished.  

How does Zywicki reach his conclusion?  By claiming that:

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