A Day In The Fed's Vault

Michael Lewis published a great article yesterday regarding The Fed and their recent practices.  Great stuff:

"Last week the Federal Reserve bravely released 894 PDF files containing 29,346 pages that detailed its heroic actions during the financial crisis.  These documents revealed how open-minded the Fed can be when it needs to be. Local governments in Belgium, Japanese fishing cooperatives, the Libyan government and many other unlikely parties received the Fed’s financial aid. Failing U.S. banks, such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley (MS), were of course handed whatever they wanted, and permitted to post as collateral pretty much anything they could get their hands on: junk bonds, defaulted debt, volatile equities.  To naive critics this came as just more evidence that the Fed had mistaken the wants of a handful of rich people for the needs of the wider society.  Many Fed spokesmen have wisely declined to comment, many times.  Upon seeing how incapable the public is of understanding its wisdom, the Fed judiciously elected to withhold a second, far longer document."
Michael Lewis

The entire article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-12/the-fed-rescue-program-too-bizarre-to-be-true-commentary-by-michael-lewis.html

The Treacherous Road To The Blind Side

A few years ago, my friend JD recommended that I read the book Blind Side by Michael Lewis. It's a true story of a homeless black boy wandering the streets of Memphis. Abandoned by a crack addicted mother, Michael Oher somehow survives in the street on his own without any support. A friend's father decides to take his son and Michael to enroll in the elite private Christian school, Briarcrest, on the other side of town. Amazingly, he's accepted as a special needs case and by great fortune is taken in by a caring family, the Tuohys. With great assistance and love, Michael graduates from high school on the honor roll and with a very promising college football career ahead of him at Ole Miss. At Ole Miss, he had 74 straight starts (3rd in NCAA history) and led the Rebels to victories over Florida and in their bowl game in his last season.

The story got better last week when he was drafted in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens. Homeless black child wandering the streets to 1st round draft pick in the NFL. It's not the typical story, but it's one where you can say "only in America". The book is a great read not only covering Oher's life story, but also documenting the evolution of the left tackle position in the NFL.

USA Today article:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2009-04-23-michael-oher-cover_N.htm

Interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RUlpCxFiFc&feature=related