Month: July 2009

How To Buy Friends And Alienate People

The banking industry is exceeding all expectations. The biggest players are raking in profits and planning much higher compensation so far this year, on the back of increased market share (wouldn’t you like two of your major competitors to go out of business?). And banks in general are managing to project widely a completely negative attitude towards all attempts to protect consumers.

This is a dangerous combination for the industry, yet it is not being handled well. Just look at the current strategy of the American Bankers’ Association. Continue reading “How To Buy Friends And Alienate People” →

This Is Their Reform Strategy For Big Banks?

Anil Kashyap is one of our leading researchers on banks. His book with Takeo Hoshi on the evolution of the Japanese corporate finance is a must read on the twists and turns that built a great economy and then laid it low. And he has many other papers and relevant recent commentary.

Professor Kashyap has a sharp perspective the administration’s financial sector reform thinking, in part because he has long worked alongside key people now at the National Economic Council (the NEC, by the way, has disappointingly little transparency; even Treasury is more open).

So we should take him seriously, writing Tuesday in the Financial Times, on the importance of the proposed new “funeral plans” for banks. Continue reading “This Is Their Reform Strategy For Big Banks?” →