Daily Archives: January 17, 2014

What is the U.S. Media up to in its Coverage of Ecuador?

By William K. Black

If the Obama administration wanted to improve relations with Latin America the most obvious move would be to seek closer ties with Ecuador.  Ecuador has been transformed into a nation with a stable political system, a head of state reelected by enormous margins in free elections, substantial economic progress, and a pragmatic development program.  That program embraces policies that even the Washington Consensus praised that focus government expenditures on health, education, and infrastructure.  The policies also champion an idea most identified with the conservative economist Hernando de Soto – making it far easier for entrepreneurs to start new businesses.  President Correa is the leader who continues to surprise his friends and foes by taking steps that make economic sense even if they are identified with the “right” while keeping a relentless focus on the needs of the poor.  That focus on the poor comes from Correa’s Catholic social justice beliefs that the Pope has recently been returning to centrality.

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What Would It Take To Get Andrew Ross Sorkin To Call For Jamie Dimon To Resign?

By William K. Black

I have concluded that the journalists who write for the New York Times’ “Deal Book” are incapable of embarrassment or introspection.  I have waited in vain for Andrew Ross Sorkin to make a New Year’s resolution to make 2014 a fresh start.  There are scores of Deal Book article that drive a white-collar criminologist and a (real) financial regulator to despair.  I focus here on one article by Sorkin on October 14, 2013 entitled “The Bloodlust of Pundits Swirls Around Jamie Dimon” that exemplifies how much harm Deal Book does because of its pandering to the elite financial CEOs who became wealthy from the frauds that drove the crisis, its ethics-free approach to financial fraud, and its analytical ennui.  Deal Book could be a national asset, but it is a net liability.  This first installment discussing their “Bloodlust” article analyzes Sorkin’s use of the world “bloodlust.”

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