‘Guaranteed to Fail’ is a book written by Lawrence J., Viral V. Acharya, Matthew Richardson, Stijn van Nieuwerburgh White can help you to learn a lot about such important things as how poorly designed government guarantees for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to the debacle of mortgage finance in the United States, weighs different reform proposals, and provides sensible, practical recommendations.

The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008 led to one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in history.

The bailout has already cost American taxpayers close to $150 billion, and substantially more will be needed. The U.S. economy—and by extension, the global financial system—has a lot riding on Fannie and Freddie.

They cannot fail, yet that is precisely what these mortgage giants are guaranteed to do. How can we limit the damage to our economy, and avoid making the same mistakes in the future?

You can find this book, ‘Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance’, on Amazon right now.

It isn’t often that governments try to place restrictions on their own country’s economic growth, but that’s exactly what seems to be happening in China, with the Chinese government forced to step up its attempt to reduce the velocity of the rate of its financial growth.

In recent years, China has emerged to become a dominant superpower in the world of business and finance, with the country now possessing the world’s second-largest economy and becoming one of the most popular destinations for foreign investors. In 2010, foreign investors found the prospect of China so appealing that they pumped a total of $105.7bn into the economy as competition intensified to grab a part of the booming Chinese economy.

However, along with rapid financial expansion so often comes large-scale problems, and that’s extremely applicable to the Chinese situation. Part of what has made China so vulnerable in this respect is the fact that its rapid expansion has been in large part the result of a credit boom. Since 2009, banks across the nation have been lending ridiculous and unsustainable amounts of money, forcing tighter credit conditions to be introduced earlier this year.

These new conditions have certainly had their impact, with FDI into China slowly drastically this year, foreign investment growing just 2.8% in June compared to a year earlier.

It remains to be seen how the credit challenge in China now plays out over the next five to ten years, but there’s no doubting that this is a crucial era in the wider context of Chinese economic history.

If you need some light relief after that financial mind-boggling feature piece, check out Fosters’ online vic reeves and bob mortimer videos.

The Bush administration have taken ownership stakes in certain U.S. banks as an option for dealing with a severe global credit crisis, AP reports.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told reporters that Treasury was moving quickly to implement the $700 billion rescue effort and he specifically mentioned reviewing ways to bolster the capital of banks.

“We will use all the tools we’ve been given to maximum effectiveness, including strengthening the capitalization of financial institutions of every size,” Paulson said at a Wednesday news conference.

Asked whether he would try something like the British plan, Paulson said: “We have a broad range of authorities and tools. … We’ve emphasized the purchase of liquid assets, but we have a broad range of authorities. And I’m confident we have the authorities we need to work with going forward.”