Finding fresh angles on the financial collapse

Chris Adams (left) of McClatchy Newspapers Washington bureau spoke on an IRE panel with David Heath of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund about investigating the financial collapse.

LAS VEGAS — McClatchy Newspapers Washington bureau went looking for “fresh meat on old stories” and local angles on national stories about the financial collapse, one of its reporters, Chris Adams, told IRE. He acknowledged that the bureau “did come into this thing late.” Plus, the bureau, which serves 30 dailies, has a different audience than The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which were leading on the story.

Its effort resulted in Adams, Greg Gordon, Kevin G. Hall being named 2010 finalists in national reporting for  ”their examination of the nation’s financial collapse and notably on the involvement of Goldman Sachs.” It marked Adams’ third time as a finalist.

Among the angles that the bureau came up with were how:

• Goldman Sachs secretly bet on the housing crash;
• Moody’s sold its ratings and sold out its investors;
• Many Wall Street firms are not just too big to fail, but too big to punish;
• A mortgage-modification program would send billions to many companies cited for abusive practices;
• Customers of a firm called LandAmerica lost millions when the market for “auction-rate securities” collapsed.

And here are the sources that the bureau tapped to do those stories:

• Obscure SEC filings, such as the 40-App
• Collaterized debt obligation prospectuses from the Irish Stock Exchange
• Pension fund reports using the Freedom of Information Act and Data Practices Act
• Work calendar for former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson
• Financial disclosures for Goldman Sachs alumni who took jobs in Washington
• Quarterly call reports for banks from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
• Internal files, e-mails and memos from the Federal Trade Commission on its cases against mortgage-service companies
• Lawsuits and bankruptcy court records.

Here is Adams’ full presentation.