Fortune's Colin Barr has been on a mini-rampage against the big Wall Street banks lately but in his hands the kind of biased, snarky reporting that makes me flip the page elsewhere is compelling reading.
Today's article on how bank leadership teams are trying to obscure their pending reckoning with the commercial real estate sector is a great example of how he can write a hit piece backed up with multiple facts, quotes and observations to make his point.
He is far from the first reporter to focus on this issue - but his ability to point out the exact weaknesses in asset allocation, government complicity in letting the politically connected off the hook in realizing the potential losses, hard data on commercial lease spending and early stage delinquencies, work together to paint a grim picture grounded in facts, not rhetoric.
The article was also a happy Friday present for about six analyst teams quoted in the article. If you are a bear, make sure you're on Barr's call list. He'll get to you sooner or later, and the way he's been going lately, probably sooner.
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