|
|
|
The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! From Nixon to Sarah Palin
|
home / subscribe / donate / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
From Nixon to Sarah Palin
What’s happened to the Republican Party? What’s happened to populism? Read Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair on the life and death of Nixonland, and the class politics of the war over Sarah Palin. ALSO in our new subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter, read Serge Halimi on how Russia gave Georgia and the U.S.a well-deserved black eye. PLUS Carrie Dann’s wonderful first-hand account of the fight of the Western Shoshone to reclaim their land. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
|
Today's Stories September 10, 2008 Peter Morici September 9, 2008 Michael Colby Chellis Glendinning Vijay Prashad Jeffery R. Webber/ David Michael Green Brian J. Foley John Ross Pierre M. Sprey / Nicole Colson Marc Gardner William S. Lind Website of the Day
September 8, 2008 Mike Whitney Tariq Ali Pam Martens Bill Quigley Malini Johar Schueller / Robert Jensen Uri Avnery Win McCormack Howard Lisnoff Maria C. Khoury Website of the Day September 6 / 7, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Linn Washington, Jr. Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Nancy Kurshan William Blum Michael Winship Fred Gardner Nikolas Kozloff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Karyn Strickler David Yearsley Richard Rhames James L. Secor Missy Beattie Eric Patton Ben Terrall Thom Rutledge Dan Bacher David Macaray Jane Stillwater Grady Harper Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend September 5, 2008 Elizabeth Walters Bill Quigley Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ira Glunts Peter Morici Deepak Tripathi Manuel Garcia, Jr. Michael Donnelly Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day September 4, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Andy Worthington Osama Dawoud Stephen Lendman Fidel Castro Website of the Day September 3, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Sen. Mike Gravel Vijay Prashad Nikolas Kozloff Ralph Nader Howard Lisnoff Steve Early / Cal Winslow Shepherd Bliss Bill Quigley Website of the Day
September 2, 2008 Marjorie Cohn Jonathan Cook Robert Weitzel Corey D. B. Walker John Ross Eric Walberg Judith Scherr Richard Morse B. R. Gowani Michael Greenberg Website of the Day September 1, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff C. G. Estabrook Manuel Garcia, Jr. David Macaray B. R. Gowani Saul Landau Charles Orloski Gloria La Riva Website of the Day August 30 / 31, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Bill Quigley Jeffrey St. Clair Andy Worthington Deepak Tripathi Stanley Howard Dave Lindorff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Josh Schlossberg Benjamin Dangl Missy Beattie Howard Lisnoff Suzan Mazur Rev. Jim Rigby David Yearsely Serge Quadruppani B.R. Gowani Richard Rhames Poets' Basement Website of the Day
August 29, 2008 Mike Whitney Brian Cloughley David Ker Thomson Joanne Mariner Neve Gordon Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Michael Donnelly August 28, 2008 Judy Gumbo Albert Paul Cantor Saul Landau / Andy Worthington Ben Terrall Leonard Peltier Niranjan Ramakrishnan Donna J. Volatile Website of the Day
August 27, 2008 Anthony DiMaggio Jordan Flaherty Ralph Nader Melissa Checker Bob Sommer Cynthia McKinney Ali Khan M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Dave Lindorff David Macaray Website of the Day
August 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Michael D. Yates Paul Craig Roberts Andy Worthington Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Huwaida Arraf Joseph Grosso Sheldon Richman Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day August 25, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook James McEnteer Uri Avnery Will Potter Robert Jensen Stephen Lendman Wajahat Ali Carl Finamore Website of the Day August 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patty O'Grady Nicole Colson Steve Conn Deepak Trapathi Robert Fantina Jonathan M. Feldman Joshua Frank Osama Qashoo Howard Lisnoff David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Alan Farago Michael Winship Richard Rhames David Rosen Patrick B. Barr Jamie Newlin Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 22, 2008 Boris Kagarlitsky Laura Carlsen Bob Barr Marwan Bishara Peter Morici Manuel Garcia, Jr. Charles Mostoller Sumbul Ali-Karamali Keith Rosenthal John F. Miglio Website of the Day August 21, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Loserville: How Obama Blew It Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner Wajahat Ali Ron Jacobs Rostam Purzal Anthony Papa Website of the Day August 20, 2008 Michael Neumann Ray McGovern Eric Walberg Fidaa Abed Daniel Haack Mike Whitney Website of the Day August 19, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Deepak Tripathi Marwan Bishara Saul Landau William S. Lind Martha Rosenberg James Brittain Pratyush Chandra David Macaray Website of the Day |
September 10, 2008 The Feds' Seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie MacCan the Bailout Work?By PETER MORICI The Treasury Department has placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under federal conservatorship and booted the senior management. This bailout will impose needed reforms in the companies' business practices. And, contrary to much conventional wisdom, the cost to the taxpayer may not be large - that is, if the federal government gets Wall Street to help. The Treasury will buy some Fannie and Freddie bonds to shore up confidence that these are fully backed by the federal government, and it will make short-term loans to Fannie and Freddie. These pose little risk to the Treasury and will net profits for the taxpayers. The Treasury will also purchase up to $200 billion in preferred shares to provide capital to cover losses on defaulting mortgages. In return, the Treasury receives a 10 percent dividend and warrants to purchase 79.5 percent of the common stock for less than a penny a share. Until recently, Fannie and Freddie stuck to their mission - insuring and financing low-down-payment mortgages to low- and middle-income families with good credit and income histories. This was a profitable business. If housing prices stabilize, Fannie and Freddie should become profitable and attractive investments again. The Treasury will be able to sell its common and preferred stock and may recoup most or all the money that it puts in now. Fannie and Freddie will also be able to raise new capital. The real challenge is to assist private lenders to make certain adequate mortgage funds are available to all qualified home buyers as housing prices stabilize. That's where Wall Street comes in. Fannie and Freddie account for about $5 trillion of the $12 trillion in outstanding mortgages. The remainder was financed by commercial banks and mortgage companies. Until recently, regional banks and mortgage companies did not fund most loans from deposits. They wrote mortgages and sold these to Wall Street banks and securities companies, such as Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. Wall Street bundled these loans into bonds for sale to insurance companies, pension funds and other fixed-income investors. In recent years, regional banks and mortgage companies increasingly wrote subprime loans with potentially high default rates. Wall Street became quite skilled at dressing up bonds backed by dodgy loans with what proved inadequate default insurance. In the end, too many loans defaulted, foreclosed properties on the market swelled, and housing prices dipped. Bond holders took losses, and the big Wall Street financial houses mostly left the mortgage financing business. Falling housing prices caused more of Fannie and Freddie's prime loans to fail. However, these companies also succumbed to the subprime frenzy by lowering their lending standards, which increased their losses. Federal supervision should fix that. Wall Street banks and securities companies have quit securitizing loans into bonds, as their executives have gone looking for other businesses that could create big profits and bonuses. The regional banks and mortgage companies must go back to relying on deposits to write new mortgages, and those deposits are hardly enough. Fannie and Freddie alone cannot provide enough mortgages to put a floor under prices and provide for new home constructions. Regional banks and mortgage companies must again be able to sell loans to large, fixed-income investors through Wall Street. Citigroup, Lehman and other Wall Street financial houses have their own problems, thanks to losses on subprime loans. The Federal Reserve has loaned them more money than the Treasury is putting into Fannie and Freddie but - so far - has not required much from them in return. The Fed made loans on easy terms because these Wall Street firms are considered "too big to fail" and provide vital banking services to the economy. However, the companies have taken the aid while cutting back on those vital banking services; they are not buying and securitizing mortgages into bonds. Instead, they are emphasizing other high-profit, nonbanking activities, such as wealth management, securities trading and mergers. Thus, the economy suffers from a shortage of mortgages. The Federal Reserve should require the big Wall Street financial firms to securitize mortgages into bonds in exchange for its loans. Only then will we have enough mortgage money to resurrect the housing market, ensure the vitality of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and get the U.S. economy going again. Peter Morici is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
|
Now Available from CounterPunch Books! The Inside Story of the Shannon Five's Smashing Victory Over the
RED STATE REBELS:
Edited by  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!  Click Here to Buy! Click Here for Dates & Venues Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz  Click Here to Buy! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order! How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism     
    
 Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed                   |
