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Market and/or Government: Reducing Systemic Risk in Banking
If the five largest banks—JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley—are too big to fail and yet substandard operationally on account of their respective complexities (e.g., investment banking added to commercial ban...
JP Morgan Chase: Conflict-of-Interest in Lobbying
At the JP Morgan stockholder meeting on May 15, 2012, as the FBI was opening an investigation into the bank’s $2 billion loss on credit derivatives, Chair/CEO Jamie Dimon gave what the Huffington Post calls “a spirited defense of the bank’s eff...
Modern Banking: Can an Evil be Regulated?
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase and board member of the New York Federal Reserve (a banking regulatory body), advocates not only that financial regulation reform is not necessary, but also that deregulation is the best course for the American fin...
California Fiscal Policy: The Crowding-Out Effect
In the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, some delegates expressed the concern that giving the General (federal) Government the authority to tax income would eventually result in a “crowding out” of the ability of state governments to raise...
Tsipras against Austerity: Achilles in Greece?
Under pressure to join a unity government in Greece with the New Democracy and Socialist parties, Tsipras of a “radical left”Syriza party was holding firm as of May 13, 2012. Even as the resulting prospect of new elections and a possible reneging...
Jamie Dimon: $2 Billion Egregious Mistake
JP Morgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, “lost $2 billion on bad bets on credit derivatives, made by a London trading desk, which, according to the Huffington Post, “is intended to hedge the giant bank's credit risk, not increase it.”...
A Rigid Refusal to Renegotiate: Blaming the Greeks
As Greek party leaders struggled to put together a government in May 2012 after a splintering election, a major (and contentious) issue was whether to demand a renegotiation of the bailout agreement. Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Coalition of the Rad...
Sen. Lugar and the Socialists
In a stunning upset, Indiana's Treasurer, Richard Mourdock, beat incumbant veteran U.S. Senator Richard Lugar by 22 percent (61-39%) in the Republican primary in 2012. Even though Lugar's 36 years of experience in the U.S. Senate had seasoned him int...
Anti-Austerity in Greek Government
The Socialists and then the New Democracy Party told Greeks that sacrifices were necessary to avert default on the state’s debt. This position came at a high political cost on May 6, 2012, when both parties lost seats in the state’s legislative e...
Merkel’s Fiscal Box
According to the Huffington Post, Germany was ruling out any substantive shift in its approach to Europe's debt crisis despite a rising chorus of opposition to Berlin's austerity policies that reached a crescendo in the elections in Greece and France...
Fuld’s Arrogance at Lehman: Systemic Risk
Documents released in May 2012 regarding Dick Fuld at Lehman Brothers prove that he was aware of the high risk involved in holding so much real estate (and related security derivatives). According to the Huffington Post, this means definitively that...
Europeans Vote against Austerity
On May 6, 2012, elections took place in six E.U. states. The most significant in terms of the debt crisis are those of France and Greece. In France, Francois Hollande narrowly beat Nicolas Sarkozy. According to the New York Times, Sarkozy “is the l...
Holding the Unfit Accountable vs. Murdoch’s Entitlement to Power
According to the New York Times, “A damning report [in late April 2012] on the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers concluding that Mr. Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run a huge international company has convulsed Britain
Subsidiarity: Federalism Over Catholic Social Ethics?
In the E.U., the principle of subsidiarity functions in theory like the Tenth Amendment does in the U.S.—again in theory. In both cases, public authority on a given domain or policy-area is preferentially to be exercised at the state rather than fe...
Wealth: Benefitting and Distorting Society
According to the New York Times, “One of the great political and economic challenges of our time is figuring out the balance between wealth that benefits society and wealth that distorts.” In terms of benefitting society, invested (as distinct fr...
Quitting Money: Crazy in Christian Terms?
In 12 years, Daniel Suelo has not made a penny; neither has he spent one. In 2000, he left his remaining $30 in a phone booth (remember those?) and never looked back. He went on to live on public lands, foraging for food and accepting alms from other...
Internet Escapes Grasp of China
According to the Huffington Post, the “surprising escape” of Chen Guangcheng, a blind legal activist, from house arrest to the presumed custody of U.S. diplomats was “buoying China's embattled dissident community” even as the government lashe...
Bishops Chastise Republicans on Poverty
The Speaker of the U.S. House, John Boehner, chastised the American Roman Catholic Bishops at a news conference on April 17, 2012 for having scolded the House Republican budget for harming the poor while helping out the affluent. “At a time of grea...
Obama Caving to Agribusiness
Faced with political pressure from Republicans and farming groups, the White House decided in April 2012 not to go ahead with rules that would have prevented children from “operating heavy machinery, handling tobacco crops, working in grain silos o...
Hollywood Bribes China
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, known as F.C.P.A., “forbids American companies from making illegal payments to government officials or others to ease the way for operations in foreign countries,” according to the New York Times. The practical...
