todd, if you had to choose to take a 6 month minor course in college, what would it be
Investing(stock market) or entrepreneurship!?
without knowing so much about the stock market but interested in it? but with entrepreneurship can help future plans and increase knowledge about it?

Beautiful article, Todd.
Bank’s story make me think and think. (However my ascendancy is made by deutsch bankers, not kidding, coming from Northern Germany).
The big interest of bankers into companies and their hunger of beeing part of the business is sometimes counterproductive.
And the theory of a Jrewish economist that imagines an enormous company made by banks it’s too much reductive.
We deserve more work on products and less on company interests.
That’s my opinion Todd.
Maria Giovanna
ps I’ve to study more. I’m reading more Samuelson.
pps I don’t like mergers and acquisitions between the ridiculas and small italian banks!

Whatever happened to a free market economy? If you’ve marketed a product over the last five years and your business models and the market price of your product were such that you’ve made huge profits: Good for you! Whether your product was housing loans or pet rocks is beside the point. Now if you’ve had no contingency plan for a complete market reversal (whether it is that the housing market collapsed because our economy can no longer absorb the costs of our foreign policies, or whether people realized that rocks don’t make good pets) and now you are struggling to survive there should be no bail out for you. However, if your demise will have such a significant impact on the economy that we must give up the principles of a free market economy and bail you out, then you must be regulated. If I’m going to set aside my principles to pull you pet rock out of the fire, I damn well want a say on how you sell your pet rocks in the future. Regulate’m!!

Todd, it is completely worng to add more regulation to investment banks. The fact is the financial regulators in the US were asleep whilst this mess was brewing. Perhaps their procedures and market monitoring methodology need to be addressed first. How did they allow banks and other mortgage providers to continue to make home loans available to people with hardly any income or no income at all? Just because the investment banks took this ‘toxic’ waste, re-packaged it and sold it onto investors does not make them the villains of the story. As I said, the fact of the matter is that the regulators failed miserably in spotting this problem before it became the debacle that it is now. You should direct your ire towards them.

If you don’t want government regulations, don’t come whining to them for a bailout. You can’t have it both ways, boys.

Nice article.
The Belgian situation - politically speaking - is far from ideal. We have more governments per square kilometer than we have houses (obviously a joke but hey sometimes it feels like that)
This results in over-regulation and passive corruption on a scale that is unworthy for any European Union member.
BUT: over-regulation does have some advantages: the banks have to abide by rules that most of the time are ridiculous but sometimes work out fine to protect the voters.
The mortgage situation in the States, which i have been following closely, is nearly impossible in our country - thank God.
However, investment in Belgium is also halted by the same regulations that save normal folks from bankrupcy so I would say we export some of Belgium’s rules, send them to the States and import some easier to follow regulations from the States to our country. Should turn out to be an win-win situation.

Tighter controles over the financial institutions seems the right thing to do. What about some of the same for the speculators who have driven oil prices to $112+

I think they share a large share in the problmes of today, recession, higher food prices. As was stated so often, there were no other reasons for oil to increase like this other than speculation.

They should be taxed heavily for a large share of this windfall gain.

Heh, what about the trillion dollars spent on the ridiculous Iraq war? All the U.S. markets seem to be gradually dwindling ever since Bush made some questionable decisions.

When you owe a trillion dollars to many countries, it’s kinda hard to have a booming economy.

Hello Todd, I viewed a UK TV program about the root causes of the Credit Crunch being the sale of products such as MBSs and CDOs.
It was mentioned that there could be an even bigger time bomb hidden in the dirt in the form of CDSs (Credit Default Swaps). Do you have a view on this? Love the blog

Hi Tod and thanks for keeping us informed at CNN. It seems like only yesterday that big takeovers were in the 100’s of millions of $$ but today they are into the 10’s of billions. Is this spiraling out of control and the true value of these companies very over inflated. Could it be these high prices that are leading us down the road to universal despair. A few years ago the bankers were baulking at the idea of writing off the poor countries debts but seem to be able to absorb the present write downs in 100’s of billions with relative ease are fast becoming the norm. I agree with you that the free market system is out of control and needs to be reigned in before its to late. But Governments writing blank cheques to bail out these financial intuitions may not be the solution. Or heaven forbid, have they come up with a completely new concept in financing. All profits will be privatized and all losses will be nationalized.