¶ “The most pronounced development in banking today is that executives have become bolder as their business has gotten worse.” That’s howJesse Eisinger, a ProPublica financial reporter appearing in the Times’s DealBook, begins a politely indignant essay on the federal government’s mollycoddling of big bankers. What the bankers have become bolder about, however, is guaranteeing their infantile behavior, by demanding further protection from downsides and insulation from litigation and freedom from regulation. They want their cake and they want to eat it and then they want another cake! We wish that Mr Eisinger had put it like that, because there is, otherwise, nothing remotely bold about what bankers are up to these days. ¶ But if you really want cheering up, don’t miss Azam Ahmed’s story about Armageddon investing, which involves losing millions every day so that you’ll have gazillions when the markets go to hell, after attack by black swans with fat tails. The worst of it is that something constructive might be done with these assets. We’re only sorry that excitably pusillanimous investors aren’t going to be the only ones who get what they’re paying for.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 30th, 2011 at 10:30 am.