Skip to main content

On PPIP and Geithner's amazing power grab

Well, where do we start?

On the subjects of the toxic-assets plan/public-private investment partnership ("PPIP") and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's latest power grab, it's difficult to organize my thoughts and decide where to begin. There is almost too much information to absorb here.

Trying to catch up with all the latest news on not only the government's toxic-assets plan, but Geithner's proposal for sweeping regulatory changes over the financial industry, may seem like an overwhelming task.

Thankfully, there are a few people out there (bloggers, journalists) who seem up to the task of covering these events. I've organized a collection of some of the best articles and blog posts that I have found on these interrelated subjects. Select and read as you like.

Before we begin, I will say one thing about the ongoing financial crisis and government's response to it: the officials (many of whom are unelected) at the helm have, rather predictably, decided to increase regulation and consolidate their power in response to a crisis that, in many respects, they helped create. Now, on with the show:

1. "Geithner proposes vast expansion of US oversight of financial system" - Washington Post.

2. "Geithner proposes to reinvent how the financial world is regulated" - US News & World Report.

3. "Geithner to seek power over hedge funds, derivatives" - Bloomberg.

4. "Geithner 'power grab' could worry creditors" - FT.com.

5. "Geithner testifies about new market rules (video)" - Bloomberg.

6. "Roubini says Geithner plan won't prevent bank nationalizations (w/ video)" - Bloomberg.

7. "Geithner's desperate power grab" - Economics Junkie.

8. "Geithner calls for power to blackmail companies" - Rossputin.com.

9. "Willem Buiter on toxic-assets plan/PPIP" - FT.com.

10. "It looks like Citi and Bank of America are already gaming the system" - Clusterstock.

11. "Geithner's five big misconceptions" - Business Insider.

12. "Ignoring the Austrians got us into this mess" - Barron's.

13. "Overview of the Public-Private Investment Program" & "Overview of PPIP, Part II" - Reggie Middleton.

14. "PPIP for Dummies" - Dr. Housing Bubble.

If you found this reading list useful, feel free to bookmark this post to your favorite social bookmarking site (Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon), or forward it to your friends and colleagues with the help of our "email post" button found in the post footer.

For more insight into the causes of the financial crisis and the build up towards increased regulation of the financial industry, read on at the related articles and posts below.

Related articles and posts:

1. The Fed leviathan grows - Finance Trends.

2. Hedge funds: regulations and redemptions - Finance Trends.

3. Jim Rogers: Geithner clueless (Bloomberg TV) - Finance Trends.

4. Jim Rogers doesn't mince words about crisis - BusinessWeek.

5. Adding up all government interventions - NicolasRapp.com.

Popular posts from this blog

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4.

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean

Slate profiles Victor Niederhoffer

Slate's recent profile of writer/speculator, Vic Niederhoffer has been getting some attention from traders and finance types in recent days. I thought we'd take a look at it here too, to offer up some possible educational value from Vic's experiences with trading and loss. Here's an excerpt from Slate's profile of Victor Niederhoffer : " I've enjoyed getting your e-mails. It sounds like you've thought a lot about being wrong. Well, the reason you contacted me, to call a spade a spade, is that I'm sort of infamous for having made a big, notorious, terrible error not once but twice in my market career. Let's talk about those errors. The first was your investment in the Thai baht, which pretty much wiped you out when the Thai stock market crashed in 1997. I made so many errors there it's pathetic. I made one of my favorite errors: "The mouse with one hole is quickly cornered." That is key. There are certain decisions you make in li