The Orwellian language of Wall Street finds its way to the Treasury Department

In trying to rebrand dodgy financial in­struments, treasury secretaries like Paul­son and Timothy Geithner are continuing a recent tradition. So much of the finance sector's innovation in the past 30 years, it turns out, wasn't developing new stuff, but rather developing new ways of talking about pre-existing stuff. In the 1980s, la­beling risky debt offerings as junk bonds was an intentionally ironic feint (pros knew that the instruments pos­sessed ... Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala

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Review

Julia Willebrand
3.4
by Julia Willebrand - Apr. 4, 2009

What's not clear in this piece is the extent of the deception involved in reframing toxic/troubled assets as "legacy loans". Since this an opinion piece the author should have made the identity and intention of the culprits clearer.

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Julia's Rating

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