DOJ-JPMorgan settlement was negotiated by former WaMu attorney

The final terms of JPMorgan’s mortgage fraud settlement with the Department of Justice was announced yesterday. It is not all that it is cracked up to be, but that has not stopped reporters from touting the deal as a record settlement and the result of a tough negotiation. One particularly extreme example is the front …

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C.V. Starr & Co.: Greenberg’s new AIG?

The New York Times ran a great story on Tuesday about former AIG chief Maurice Greenberg‘s latest venture, the C.V. Starr empire. Reporter Mary Williams Walsh links Greenberg’s new success to the Treasury Department capping executive pay at AIG last week: “That may hasten the exodus of A.I.G.’s talent, sending more refugees into Mr. Greenberg’s …

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New York Times is on Pimco’s speed dial

On Sunday, The New York Times ran “Bill Gross of Pimco is on Treasury’s Speed-Dial,” a lengthy article on the cozy relations between PIMCO executives Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian and the Treasury Department. The piece had the confessional tone that is commonplace these days on the Times business page. To seek absolution for rapaciously …

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Story gets it wrong on Summers

Following on Saturday’s weather balloon detailing the Wall Street pay of Larry Summers, today the Times ran a piece on Summers’s work at the hedge fund DE Shaw. Replete with color from inside sources and spare in its critical content, the article is a striking example of journalistic capture; after discussing Summers’ ludicrous compensation ($5.2 …

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