‘Biden is Wrong on Russia’ – What Biden fails to recognize, is that the balance of power between Moscow and Washington is tied to the price of oil and natural gas. – Plan B Economics 

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Double Down? – California Pension Plan: Betting the house – Kurt Brouwer – … Now, the investment chief for CalPERS is doing something that is quite unusual in that he is calling for the system to essentially bet billions on risky assets in the hopes of making a big gain [emphasis added below]: … – Fundmastry Blog

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Rortybomb – Government’s Role in the Housing Bubble 

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Defends Fed’s Response to Financial Crisis – By Scott Lanman and Timothy R. Homan – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke defended the central bank’s response to the financial crisis and recession in a forum to be televised this week, saying he sought to avoid a “second Great Depression.” – Bloomberg
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EU Mandates 5% Risk Retention, Sets CRA Framework – By DIANA GOLOBAY – The Council of the European Union on Monday adopted new regulations imposing a legal framework on credit-rating agencies and introducing the requirement of 5% risk retention by originators.  A major directive within the new regulations tightens capital requirements for European banks. In an effort to improve the framework for securitization practices, the regulation requires originators to retain 5% of risk transferred or sold to investors. Trade groups Stateside remain categorically opposed to a 5% risk retention. – housingwire

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The Gains from Right to Rent - Dean Baker and Hye Jin Rho – This paper calculates savings from renting compared with owning a house purchased at the peak housing bubble years of 2006 or 2007 in 16 major metropolitan areas … In addition, Right to Rent offers the advantage that it could immediately benefit all homeowners facing foreclosure without any bureaucracy and would require no taxpayer dollars. … – Paper at CEPR
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Henry Kaufman video: How To Regulate Wall St. – Steve Forbes – Former Federal Reserve member Dr. Henry Kaufman discusses the need for banks to be “too good to fail” – Video at Forbes