On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the right column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

I noted some serious doubt on a CBO report claiming the Federal Reserve's toxic holdings are money makers, but Naked Capitalism really drives it home as fiction in CBO Issues Fed Flattering Propaganda:

It conflates the discussion of budgetary costs and financial services industry subsidies, when explicit costs to taxpayers are only the tip of the iceberg of the bennies that banks received from Fed. While the other forms of support are arguably outside the CBO’s purview, the failure to state those omissions means that defenders of the Fed and the banksters can use this report to obscure the true extent of welfare for financiers.

Must Read Post #2

It's not what you know but who you know. Zero Hedge does a nice call out in Tishman Speyer Joins Ranks Of TBTF As Fed Gives Real Estate Firm Taxpayer Subsidized Tip. Seems the New York Fed has no problems making some businesses solvent through subsidies, of course regular folk can go to the devil.

Must Read Post #3

The Big Picture overviews the possibility of negative Q3 2010 GDP growth in There's a Slow Train Coming:

let’s take a peek at data from the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI). The leading economic indicator, which led the recovery by about four months, fell in April and is now at a 47-week low. It is not signaling a recession (yet) but it does suggest that growth in the latter half of the year will be in the range of 1-1.5%. That is not enough to cut into the unemployment numbers in any meaningful fashion. (Economists generally think that GDP growth in the range of 3.5% is needed to really create job growth.)

I mentioned with this latest unemployment report, the green shooters are dying on the vine in droves.

Must Read Post #4

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President and CEO Richard W. Fisher calls cash on the bullshit being presented as the Financial Reform bill. Notice we are getting more and more Federal Reserve regional Presidents really speaking up. In a speech titled Financial Reform or Financial Dementia?....

Regulators have, for the most part, tiptoed around these larger institutions. Despite the damage they did, failing big banks were allowed to lumber on, with government support. It should come as no surprise that the industry is unfortunately evolving toward larger and larger bank size with financial resources concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

Based on these considerations, coupled with studies suggesting severe limits to economies of scale in banking, it seems that mostly as a result of public policy—and not the competitive marketplace—ever larger banks have come to dominate the financial landscape. And, absent fundamental reform, they will continue to do so. As a result of public policy, big banks have become indestructible. And as a result of public policy, the industrial organization of banking is slanted toward bigness.

Big banks that took on high risks and generated unsustainable losses received a public benefit: TBTF support. As a result, more conservative banks were denied the market share that would have been theirs if mismanaged big banks had been allowed to go out of business. In essence, conservative banks faced publicly backed competition.

Let me make my sentiments clear: It is my view that, by propping up deeply troubled big banks, authorities have eroded market discipline in the financial system.

Read the entire speech. See here and here for the latest actions on the actual bill. Ignore press releases claiming they will get the Volcker rule and what have you in an already passed bill after the fact.