Who’s Afraid of Sovereign Funds?
The most recent subject to provoke shivers of anxiety is the rise of sovereign wealth funds, notably the investment by a number of them during the past two months of nearly $20 billion in some leading U.S. financial institutions.
Good Bailouts and Bad
The test of the bailout will be whether the government plans to buy banks' assets at a price resembling fair market value.
A Seriously Terrible Idea
There have been reports in the press that the Federal Reserve has been meeting with the U.K. and European central banks to discuss a novel idea: direct purchases of mortgage securities by these central banks to “set a floor” under their prices. This is an appalling idea, and here's why.
The Panic Over Fannie and Freddie
The U.S. government has made it clear that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage guarantors, are not going to run out of cash. Yet the stocks of both are still tumbling; what is going on?