The CDO Daisy Chain | Probublica

Here's how the Wall Street Money Machine worked in the run-up to the financial collapse: Banks created CDOs from mortgage-backed securities. Banks often retained the large top portion, called the "Super Senior." The bottom portion, or "Equity," was often sold off to hedge funds. The middle portion, or "Mezzanine," often went into new CDOs. The main buyers of those new CDOs were once again the banks.

http://www.propublica.org/special/the-cdo-daisy-chain

The Long Con... Scolding Minnows

Tracking Financial Crisis Cases

Very few cases related to the financial crisis have been brought against executives at large companies, and the ones that have been involved are almost entirely civil fraud, rather than criminal allegations. Here are the prominent cases so far. In many of them, the government negotiated a settlement with the defendants before it even filed a complaint, then announced both the case and settlement at the same time.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/financial-crisis-cases.html?ref=business

A Compelling Dosey-Doe | Time to move the burden from the taxpayer to the culprit

Interesting concept... from last week's Business Week:

"Blinder thinks the Fed is being "a little too passive."
 
He wants the Fed to cut to zero the rate it pays banks on the excess reserves it holds for them. That would remove banks' incentive to park money with the Fed. Even better, says Blinder, the Fed could effectively charge banks for holding their reserves by paying a negative interest rate. 

 More likely is that Bernanke will keep short-term interest rates, now around 0.25 percent, at that low level for even longer. "It is becoming increasingly likely that the Fed will be on hold until 2013," says Perli. 

What Now, Ben Bernanke?

Too Big to Fail | The Movie...

HBO pulls off a simplification that Saints Paulson inappropriately, but actually does a relatively good job of distilling Sorkin's masterful epic of investigative reporting into something the average American might be able to understand... In a 'nut shell' the 'shit' hit the fan. The Government grasped for straws, and this was the result. And, if you're keeping score the hits keep coming.



Watch in its entirety HERE:

http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-2723367-Too-Big-to-Fail

Official SITE:

http://www.hbo.com/movies/too-big-to-fail/inside/video/video/trailer.html#/movies/too-big-to-fail/index.html

Tracking U.S. Monthly Unemployment

 

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/03/99136097/tracking-u-s-monthly-unemployment