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James Kwak

James Kwak is a former McKinsey consultant, a co-founder of Guidewire Software, and currently a student at the Yale Law School. He is a co-founder of The Baseline Scenario.

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James Kwak's Latest Articles | 101

We Are On An Unsustainable Fiscal Path With the Potential for New Financial Bubbles

Oct 30, 2009| 

Yesterday morning I testified to a Joint Economic Committee of Congress hearing.  The session discussed the latest GDP numbers, the impact of the fiscal stimulus... Read »

Where Else Are You Going to Go?

Oct 19, 2009| 

Yves Smith returned from book-writing land to catch up on the Andrew Hall story, which is one that I pretty much decided to ignore from the beginning. Hall is the... Read »

Does the Sociology of Corporations Leads to a Certain Kind of CEO?

Oct 14, 2009| 

According to Calvin Trillin (or, more accurately, the probably-at-least-semi-fictional interlocutor he meets at a bar in Midtown), the financial crisis was caused... Read »

The Idea of Having Big Banks Doesn’t Pass the Test of Basic Business Logic

Oct 12, 2009| 

At a panel discussion at the Pew Charitable Trusts (captured for posterity by Planet Money), Alice Rivlin floated the idea of breaking up big banks. Luckily for... Read »

What’s Wrong with a Phone Call?

Oct 9, 2009| 

Yesterday Simon pointed out the AP story highlighting Tim Geithner’s many contacts with a few key Wall Street executives — primarily Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein,... Read »

There’s No Reason it Has to Be a Securitization Bubble

Oct 7, 2009| 

The New York Times has a story on “Paralysis in the Debt Markets” which says, basically, that credit has dried up because of lack of demand for asset-backed... Read »

Ever Wondered How the Private Equity Industry Works?

Oct 5, 2009| 

The New York Times has the story for you. (Thanks to a reader for pointing it out to me.) Yves Smith has a summary of the juicy bits. The game is basically this.... Read »

Is Financial “Progress” Good?

Sep 28, 2009| 

Financial commentators use metaphors* all the time. Derivatives are “financial weapons of mass destruction,” for example. Actually, people use metaphors all... Read »

Bank of America Scores $4 Billion While Taxpayers Get Hosed

Sep 23, 2009| 1

I’m trying to figure out if I should be infuriated about the agreement allowing Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to walk away from the asset guarantees it got as part... Read »

The Ultimate Form of Regulatory Arbitrage

Sep 18, 2009| 

Gillian Tett has the latest perspective on a curious deal that Barclays (NYSE:BCS) did earlier this week (hat tip Brad DeLong). The deal goes something like this.... Read »

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