Banking

December 9, 2019 — Steven Hayward

Paul Volcker, RIP

Featured image News this morning of the passing of Paul Volcker, the chairman of the Federal Reserve during the key period from 1979 – 1987 when inflation was wrung out of the American economy, a painful though necessary move whose long-run benefits we are still experiencing today. The Reuters obituary notice today says: Volcker was appointed Fed chairman by a Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, and then reappointed by a Republican, Ronald Reagan. »
December 21, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Remy Decodes Bitcoin

Featured image As I mentioned here a couple weeks back, I don’t have a clear grasp on bitcoin, but fortunately we have Remy Munasifi on hand to . . . well, not exactly explain it to us, but at least have some good fun with it, with some rapid-fire sideswipes along the way (I especially like his Al Franken reference): »
February 9, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Bill Cooper passes and inspires

Featured image As chairman and chief executive officer of TCF Financial Corporation (as it became), Bill Cooper rescued the Minnesota-based bank holding company essentially from insolvency and built it into to a regional powerhouse. I had the great good fortune to work for Bill and TCF general counsel Greg Pulles in the TCF legal department for 12 years. Bill died yesterday at the age of 73. I want to add a personal »
July 28, 2016 — Steven Hayward

Keep Your Eye on Italy

Featured image Earlier this month we reported here (“Brexit Vote: Italy Hardest Hit?“) about how Italy was the nation to watch in the aftermath of Brexit, as it had the weakest financial profile among EU nations after Greece. Tomorrow Italy will report the results of its “stress tests” of its banks, and if the results are as dismal as expected, it may trigger the next Eurozone political crisis, and the next chapter »
May 31, 2016 — Steven Hayward

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Featured image I’ve been meaning for a while to knock out an article on the theme, “there’s nothing wrong with America that 4 percent growth won’t solve.” That’s an exaggeration, of course, but not much of one. Faster economic growth will alleviate a number of our leading problems, especially stagnant wages, a sinking labor force participation rate, badly unbalanced budgets, adult children living in basements, ESPN’s sinking ratings, etc. One difficulty is »
February 23, 2016 — Steven Hayward

Kompulsory Keynesianism?

Featured image From time to time you hear people argue we should abolish the penny, because they really are a nuisance, etc. But Abe hangs on. Today the emphasis seems to be going the other way: abolish the $100 bill! You hear it said we should do this to retard “criminal activity,” but I think there’s another reason. One hints comes from this story today about how the circulation of 1,000 Franc »
August 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff

IRS sued over treatment of Americans who bank abroad

Featured image The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires, in essence, that U.S. citizens who reside outside the U.S. disclose to the IRS all of their foreign banking assets including retirement plans, savings accounts, etc. It also requires foreign banks to assist the IRS in applying the disclosure rules or else face enormous penalties. As its not-so-subtle acronym suggests, the Act purports to be an anti-fat-cat measure through which to crack »