Marketplace Scratch Pad

Morning Reading

Scott Jagow Dec 17, 2009

Good morning. Here are a few things that have caught my attention so far:

The problem isn’t the banks. It’s Obama (New York Post):

Historically, the two chief sources of capital for new start-ups have been home-equity and credit-card debt. The bursting of the housing bubble killed the first source, while Washington has killed the latter. Starting a new business out of one’s garage has always been a risky endeavor — one that has never usually been funded by bank lending even in the best of times.

Curbing big banks: Draw the damn line (Huffington Post) On financial regulation in Congress:

You are either with this or with the banking lobby. Bring it to the floor. Challenge the Republicans and the New Dems and the montebanks to filibuster against it. Force a vote on cloture. Name names. Who stands with Americans and who stands with the big banks? Force a vote regularly going into the electoral campaign.

Five lessons for the next time the banks come begging (Bloomberg):

Lesson No. 5: There will be a next time. For all the past year’s talk in Congress about ending too- big-to-fail, Bank of America now owns Merrill Lynch. Wells Fargo owns Wachovia. JPMorgan Chase owns Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have become bank- holding companies, giving them access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window and other subsidies. If any of them got in major trouble, there’s almost no doubt the government would intervene.

Company plans to pull solar power from orbit (NPR)

Yes, Virginia, gift cards do suck (The Big Picture)

Diversify your gold portfolio with women and sheep (Colbert Nation) Man, this is funny:

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Prescott Financial Sells Gold, Women & Sheep
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

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