Radio commentary, May 8, 2010

Truther follow-up Before commenting on the economic news, a brief follow-up to last week’s comments about the 9/11 Truthers. It provoked, if not a flood, more than a trickle of emails and bloggy complaints, about evenly divided between the patronizing and the hostile. Perhaps my favorite was an email from someone signing him or herself a variant on Sky, who counseled me to learn patience, and disclosing that 9/11 is a spiritual matter. Nothing makes me want to scream more than being told to be patient; I hate it, for example, when… Read More

Remarkable winning streak

So the trading desks of four big investment banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase—made money every working day last quarter, a 63-day streak. Goldman never made less than $25 million a day, and over $100 million on 35 days. There is no way that anyone could do this just by being clever—it’s mathematically impossible. There’s too much short-term randomness even in strongly trending markets. And they’re probably not just making it up, Bernie Madoff-style. How are they doing it? Maybe Congress, if it’s interested in more than grandstanding to… Read More

Demonstrate against JPMorgan Chase!

A bunch of good orgs, including the excellent NEDAP, are planning a demonstration against JPMorgan Chase, for all the usual reasons, at their shareholders’ meeting. If you can, please come and be righteous: Tuesday, May 18, 9 AM 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, Pine St side NYC