Unstructured Finance

By Sam Forgione

This week’s Weekend Reads may drive you back to the big news of the week: The Debates.

Just as the candidates’ tone and tenor seemed to drive judgments as to who won and lost, some stories were written about sparring between politicians and bankers, billionaires on whether a bankrupt Mexican company should be let off the hook, the banks and the foreclosed-upon, and the more milder subject of volatility investing. In the case of the Foreign Policy and DealBook links, the attitudes of the parties involved seem more important than their logic. And a winner and a loser probably won’t come to you. At least here, unlike in the voting booths, you can stay undecided.

From Foreign Policy:

Mohamed El-Erian writes that politicians and bankers should stop putting each other down and start averting the next crisis.

From DealBook:

Two highflying investors bump heads over a soured credit investment, Azam Ahmed writes.

From ProPublica:

The “Independent Foreclosure Review” may bear some fingerprints of a big bank, Paul Kiel writes.

The heat is on all across the U.S. as we gear up for the 4th of July. And in Europe, the heat over the euro zone financial crisis seems to have abated for a day at least, judging by Friday’s big stock market reaction.

So is the euro zone financial crisis over? No, and a lot more work needs to be done. It’s also likely that Friday’s rally will give way to more selling pressure by next week. It’s the Madness of Wall Street and it’s simply how things go.

But here’s the thing: this week’s ability of European leaders to move toward getting something done–even if it is just a bigger band-aid–is one more indication that at the end of the day this crisis will be solved in someway. Oh sure, some nations will get hurt–and more importantly a lot of ordinary people that had nothing to do with the financial crisis will get hurt the most. However, maybe it’s time for everyone–especially those in the media, at hedge funds, bloggers and on Twitter–to back away from some of the worst doom-and-gloom hysteria. Yes, things are bad and could get worse, but is the world really coming undone over the euro zone crisis?

So there’s this election this Sunday in Greece and everyone–who follows the markets–is all excited. But at the end of the day, the main reason people in the markets are all up in arms is because they want to know who will get paid, in what order and most important–how much. Sadly, there’s too little focus on whether the right people/institutions are getting paid; let alone issues of social dignity and the quality of human existence. Guess that’s what the markets are all about, right?

But don’t let any of that stop you from saying thanks to your dad tomorrow. And for all of you dads out there—A Happy Father’s Day. Here then is Sam Forgione’s weekend reads:

From The New Republic:

Dierdre N. McCloskey spans the efforts of economists to gauge happiness.

From Foreign Affairs:

Layna Mosley offers a level analysis of euro zone government debt and how markets view it.