One of the lessons that many people have taken from the financial crisis is that there was too much debt and leverage and too little equity capital.  Capital serves as a buffer against loss.  If this buffer is inadequate, the probability of financial failure is high.  During an economic boom, borrowers are eager to take… Read more

Today’s news will be dominated by the BLS’s unemployment data release. I’m sure we’ll have more to say on that. Right now, I’d like to discuss a less-publicized data release, one that probably has more information than the unemployment data. Yesterday, the FDIC released bank charge-off data, and it was disappointing and scary. I’ve posted… Read more