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Most Americans will take the recovery, high banker compensation, and all

Word that Wall Street bailout bank total compensation (base and bonus) will likely be very high again this year, is almost certain to spark renewed righteous indignation among at least some U.S. investors/voters.

It's a valid complaint, given the mistakes -- and in some cases outright fraud -- by the nation's investment banks. But it's best to express the complaint, and move on. And the reason is obvious enough, as New York Times (NYSE: NYT) business journalist Floyd Norris reminds us.

A half-year ago, Norris incisively observed that, "Justice and success don't come together in the solution for the financial crisis."

Continue reading Most Americans will take the recovery, high banker compensation, and all

Krugman gets one right and why SWF does not mean Single White Female

New York Times op-editorialist Paul Krugman got one right today. And its Floyd Norris points out why the solution to the problem Krugman highlights could be SWFs (Sovereign Wealth Funds). Krugman does not know how much the financial industry's problems will cost and Norris suggests that SWFs -- government investment funds -- are worth between $2 trillion and $15 trillion.

Krugman's right that the Fed's four attempts to reboot the financial system have not worked because they dance around the most fundamental problem -- nobody knows the depth of the financial hole. If I was in charge, I would find out where all the toxic waste is buried and estimate the amount of capital needed to offset the cost of writing it down. In my view, it makes sense to mark the toxic waste to market and to raise capital at the same time.

Norris points out that SWFs could be part of the capital raising solution -- as they have been in the cases of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and UBS AG (NYSE: UBS). He also suggests two pitfalls of SWFs as a source of capital. First, they are government controlled which could allow the SWFs to use the resulting power over our financial institutions to further their political ends. Second, whenever a new acronym such as SWF emerges in the financial world -- and there have been plenty including Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) and Structured Investment Vehicle (SIV) -- Wall Street will find a way to profit from it in the short-term while sticking the long-term costs on someone else.

Continue reading Krugman gets one right and why SWF does not mean Single White Female

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Last updated: November 11, 2009: 05:49 PM

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