Crooks and Liars (Free subscription) | 12/02/2008
The New Yorker's John Cassidy gives us an in depth look at meltdown in The Street. Or, "A Man Called Ben." Anatomy of a Meltdown Bernanke says that he was “mistaken early on in saying that the subprime crisis would be contained... read on
No Countries No Religion (Free subscription) | 11/29/2008
From Anatomy of a Meltdown by John Cassidy: The most serious charge against Bernanke and Paulson is that their response to the crisis has been ad hoc and contradictory: they rescued Bear Stearns but allowed Lehman Brothers to fail; for months, they dismissed the danger from the subprime crisis and then suddenly announced that it was grave enough to justify a huge bailout; they said they...
Cafe Hayek (Free subscription) | 11/28/2008
John Cassidy does a nice job summarizing how we get here with a focus on Bernanke and the evolution of his view of the Fed. One of my favorite parts is when Bernanke suggests that it's time for Congress to...
Cloudy Thinking (Free subscription) | 11/24/2008
John Cassidy writes about Ben Bernanke and the financial crisis. [via Paul Kedrosky]
Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine (Free subscription) | 11/24/2008
Like most magazine features on the ongoing financial crisis, John Cassidy's profile of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke in today's New Yorker is more of a "summary of everything that's happened up till now" than the "anatomy of a meltdown" it promises, which can't really be helped: How can anyone dissect anything that doesn't stay still long enough to pin it down? But the story does flesh out...
Global Financial News (Free subscription) | 01/01/2009
... subprime shakeout, another real estate mess looms: commercial property. The Banker's Bailout By John Cassidy • March 2008 Despite denials, Washington is covertly planning a massive financial rescue for banks. The Economy of Fear By John Cassidy • April 2008 Why this recession is going to hit harder and last longer than leaders are predicting. Bank Job By Jesse Eisinger...
Daniel W. Drezner (Free subscription) | 12/22/2008
Are you confused about the cause and effects of the current global financial crisis? Here are some useful reads for you: John Cassidy, “Anatomy of a Meltdown,” The New Yorker. Cassidy tries to explain Bernanke’s decision-making process over the past eighteen months. If nothing else, this story contains the only amusing anecdote about Dick Cheney that [...]
New York Times (Free subscription) | 12/26/2008
For the past two decades, Michael Lewis, the most charming and one of the shrewdest guides to America’s raucous money culture, has displayed a knack for being at the right place at the right time. He was a young trader on the Salomon Brothers bond desk during the 1987 crash; the experience led to “Liar’s Poker.” His boss at Salomon, John Meriwether, a decade later became a central figure in...
Concurring Opinions (Free subscription) | 12/21/2008
... Black Swans (although there is a small paradox about the prediction that predictions will fail). John Cassidy of Portfolio.com has a recent article with some chilling thoughts about the future of the economy. The most stark point for me was the comparison to Japan: Yet it isn’t entirely clear what [Bernanke] should do. During Japan’s “lost decade” of the 1990s, it discovered that...
WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show (Free subscription) | 12/09/2008
John Cassidy , staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Dot.Con: How America Lost Its Mind and Money in the Internet Era , explains why Ben Bernanke did what he did during the economic meltdown.
-THE CUNNING REALIST- (Free subscription) | 12/08/2008
If you missed it, be sure to check out John Cassidy's article on Ben Bernanke in the December 1 issue of The New Yorker . As a whole it's pretty damning. One problem I had with it is the ink devoted to Bernanke's "nice guy" qualities, which seems to be de rigueur for any media profile of him. This drives me up the wall. It helps make economics palatable for the public, I guess. It's also...
CARPE DIEM (Free subscription) | 12/04/2008
From the December 2007 article " The Coming Oil Crash " by John Cassidy, subtitled "Crude at $100 a barrel makes good headlines but ignores basic economics. Why oil prices are in for a 50% drop." The tripling of oil prices since the summer of 2003 (from $30 to about $95 per barrel, see chart above) has unleashed forces that within the next two or three years will bring oil prices tumbling...
BlogAds (Free subscription) | 12/02/2008
As friends who read this blog know, I’m pessimistic about the economy. My pessimism sank to new lows last night as I read John Cassidy’s New Yorker overview of Bernanke’s flailing in the face of the crisis. A tiny excerpt: The most serious charge against Bernanke and Paulson is that their response to the [...]
CBC.ca (Free subscription) | 12/06/2008
... with tremors at around 4:20 a.m. CT about 20 kilometres northeast of the town.According to John Cassidy, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, it was a magnitude 3.4 quake — strong enough to shake a house slightly, but not enough to break the dishes inside."It's a minor earthquake. It was felt by a number of people in the immediate area," he said.Saskatchewan has fewer earthquakes...
David Kirkpatrick (Free subscription) | 12/05/2008
... Dow Jones reports and jobless announcements, the New Yorker published “Anatomy of a Meltdown,” by John Cassidy in the December 1, 2008 issue. Th at article can be found here . It’s a bit long, but it does explain the steps the Fed has been taking for a whole lot longer than the general public understands to try and put “a finger in the dike” as the original strategy was phrased. Obviously...
