“There’s a discussion going on that is vital to the retirement money you’ve worked so hard to save. “The Labor Department, directed by the Obama administration, is proposing that more advisers, when giving retirement investment advice, put their clients’ best interests first. “You’re probably thinking what I thought after learning about this: Wait, these advisers […]
“It took only 16 years, but the Justice Department’s horribly misguided “Holder Doctrine” has finally been relegated to the dustbin of history where it belongs. “The Holder Doctrine was the name given to a June 1999 memorandum written by Eric H. Holder Jr., then the deputy attorney general of the United States, whom President Obama […]
“The traditional way of giving retirement advice is getting retired. “After a tug of war with the financial industry that has lasted more than five years, the U.S. Department of Labor is moving ahead on rules that will require anyone providing investment advice on your retirement plan or Individual Retirement Account to act in your […]
“The high-risk business model of universal banks helped bring about the financial crisis. Universal banks rely on cheap funding from deposits and shadow banking liabilities to finance their speculative activities in the capital markets. By combining deposit-taking and short-term borrowing activities with underwriting, market making, and trading in securities and derivatives, universal banks create a […]
“The Department of Labor is about midway through a public comment period on its ‘fiduciary rule’ proposal to require financial advisers to act solely in their clients’ best interests when giving advice and selling investments for retirement accounts.” *** “Case in point: At a recent retirement-industry conference in Washington, Robert Reynolds, the chief executive of […]
“Banks ‘deserve what they get,’ one of the world’s top regulators has said, in a salvo against the industry as it begins to push back against tough regulation and ever higher penalties.” *** Read the full Financial Times article by Caroline Binham here.
The government won a big victory this week in a case against two banks that were found to have systematically deceived investors about shoddy mortgage securities they peddled during the housing bubble. “The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous,” wrote Judge Denise Cote of Federal District Court in Manhattan in a strongly worded 361-page […]
Another month, another fine. Last week it was announced that five of the world’s biggest banks would pay $6bn to settle allegations that they manipulated the foreign exchange markets. Will the expected admissions of guilt, together with the accompanying payments, permit the banks to put the past behind them? They hope it will; I fear […]
“Ten years ago, a survey published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives found that 77 percent of the doctoral candidates in the leading American economics programs agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “economics is the most scientific of the social sciences.” “In the intervening decade, a massive economic crisis rocked the global economy, and most economists never saw […]
“Last year the vampires of finance bought themselves a Congress. I know it’s not nice to call them that, but I have my reasons, which I’ll explain in a bit. For now, however, let’s just note that these days Wall Street, which used to split its support between the parties, overwhelmingly favors the G.O.P. And the Republicans […]
If you think investors’ shattered confidence in the markets is about a single trader who may have ignited the 2010 “flash crash” by “spoofing,” you may be Wall Street’s perfect customer. And no, that’s not something to be proud of. *** Poll after poll shows market trust in the dumps. Last summer, Better Markets found […]
BANKS are yet again in trouble—not pure investment banks such as Lehman Brothers, or mortgage specialists such as Northern Rock; but a handful of huge global “network” banks. These lumbering giants are the woolly mammoths of finance, and if they cannot improve their performance they deserve a similarly grievous fate. The pressure is intense. Last […]
“Midway into a three-and-a-half-hour congressional hearing this week featuring Mary Jo White, the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, none of the legislators had bothered to ask if or when her agency would require that corporations disclose their political spending. “The bipartisan silence testified to the growing importance to both parties of anonymous campaign […]
We’ve been warned over and over that the Federal Reserve, in its effort to improve the economy, is “debasing” the dollar. The archaic word itself tells you a lot about where the people issuing such warnings are coming from. It’s an allusion to the ancient practice of replacing pure gold or silver coins with “debased” […]
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — It was probably the most important public policy discussion since the financial crisis. Too bad the most important participant, you, weren’t invited. That’s right. After U.S. taxpayers bailed out Wall Street, the New York Federal Reserve Bank on Monday hosted a series of panel discussions on culture and ethics. Yes, you had to […]
Economies may be showing signs of improvement after the 2008 crisis but Better Markets Senior Fellow, Robert Jenkins explains why central bankers are worried that underlying problems have yet to be resolved. God bless the central banker. He’s there when you need him and he’s there when you don’t. He was there in 2008 […]
By Ryan Tracy One month before he assumed the No. 2 post at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Thomas Hoenig sat before a group of global bankers in Tokyo and told them he believed their firms ought to be broken apart. “Holy mackerel,” a U.S. bank lobbyist who was in the audience that day in […]
By Michael Lewis A few times in the past several decades it has sounded as if big Wall Street banks were losing their hold on the graduates of the world’s most selective universities: the early 1990s, the dot-com boom and the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis (Teach for America!). Each time the graduating […]
“David Boies has spent much of this year putting the celebrity in celebrity lawyer. In January, he and Ted Olson, his onetime Republican antagonist from Bush v. Gore days, were at the Sundance Festival for the premiere of “The Case Against 8,” a documentary about their crusade against California’s anti-gay marriage law. In May, they […]
By Gina Chon Banks hope that a Republican takeover of the US Senate could provide the first real prospect of changes to the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, five years after the landmark bill was approved. Read the full article here:
By Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) When former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) took a job with the investment bank Moelis & Co. earlier this month shortly after resigning his Congressional seat, he became the latest example of the tight-knit relationship between Wall Street and Washington. In an interview, I called this out for what it […]
“A broad-based coalition of labor unions and consumer protection groups has reiterated its support for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to update, strengthen and clarify rules around advice provided to workers saving through retirement plans. “The DOL earlier this year delayed proposing changes to the rule governing Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plans […]
“WASHINGTON — How much will Bank of America’s expected US$17 billion mortgage settlement cost the company? The answer is, almost certainly not that much. “In mega-settlements negotiated with the government, a dollar is rarely worth an actual dollar. “Inflated figures make sensational headlines for the Justice Department, and US$17 billion would be the largest settlement […]
By the time the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized a rule last month to regulate derivatives under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the big banks that dominate the multitrillion-dollar market had already figured out how to game it. This is not a tale, however, of how wily banks always find a way around the rules. […]
They’re living at home in growing numbers. They’re not buying homes, which creates ripple effects throughout the housing market. They’re having more babies out of wedlock than in it. Why can’t millennials get it together? The first and most obvious answer is “jobs.” If you can’t find a stable job, it’s hard to move out […]
“There’s no escaping the conclusion that the stock market is not a level playing field where all investors, large and small, have an equal shot at a fair deal. “A recent groundbreaking study found that undetected insider trading occurs in a stunning one-fourth of public-company deals. Experts have long debated the pros and cons of high-frequency trading, another pervasive practice, […]
“Pension fund investors lost billions of dollars trusting the rosy credit ratings stamped on troubled mortgage securities before the 2008 crisis. In its aftermath, they have spent years and many dollars suing Moody’sand Standard & Poor’s, the main purveyors of those dubious grades. “That these funds and other plaintiffs are trying to hold the ratings […]
“In the years since the financial crisis of 2008, the Justice Department has been regularly questioned about a lack of criminal prosecutions related to the mortgage mess. “Its responses have just about always been the same, whether in public speeches by Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, or in interviews with Lanny A. Breuer, its […]
“The anonymous congressional staff members who write the nation’s laws generally work hard for fairly modest wages. Increasingly, though, they do so because there is a promise of K-Street riches at the end of their toil. “A new study by the Sunlight Foundation found that the number of active lobbyists with prior government experience has […]
“…are excess optimism and Citibank.” “That’s a saying that someone, probably Simon, repeated to me a few years ago. Crash of 1929, Latin American debt crisis, early 1990s real estate crash (OK, that wasn’t a financial crisis, just a crisis for Citibank), Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998, and, of course, the biggie of 2007–2009: anywhere […]
“Of all the arguments put forward by big banks and their allies in recent years against financial reform, the line that surfaced last week was arguably the most strange. Wall Street has been reformed, according to this view: There was a great battle, and we (the big banks) lost. There is, consequently, nothing more to do. […]
“There is a tendency in recent American political discourse to use the term “populism” as a form of putdown. The implication is that that while populists may have some legitimate grievances, they are rebelling in a disorganized and ill-informed way. As President Obama implied in early 2009, the populists have pitchforks, while his administration represented […]
“It’s all change at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Janet Yellen was confirmed as the new chief this week, and we should expect a major shift in the composition of the board over the next 12 months. Ben Bernanke is leaving, Elizabeth Duke has already resigned, and Sarah Bloom Raskin is moving to the Treasury […]
“More than a million unemployed Americans are about to get the cruelest of Christmas “gifts.” They’re about to have their unemployment benefits cut off. You see, Republicans in Congress insist that if you haven’t found a job after months of searching, it must be because you aren’t trying hard enough. So you need an extra […]
“Looking back on 2013, many of the economic and political themes seemed familiar: a weak economy. Growing income inequality. Gridlock in Washington. Partisan wrangling over fiscal policy. But others, like the disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act HealthCare.gov website and the government shutdown, were new or at least revivals. Below are 10 charts […]
“Under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a five-member panel of three Democrats and two Republicans, has an all-important role in regulating the multitrillion-dollar market in derivatives. “Since the passage of Dodd-Frank in 2010, the C.F.T.C. has put in place dozens of generally sound new federal rules — on transparency and […]
“We’ve nearly reached the end of the road with the Volcker Rule, but, to quote Boyz II Men, we can’t just let it go. At least not yet. “The final version of the Volcker Rule is due out next Tuesday, Dec. 10. This is the part of Dodd-Frank, remember, that’s designed to prevent banking entities from […]
“At the base of the Volcker rule is a sound principle – that federally insured deposits should be not be used for speculation. If banks want cheap funding from deposits, they must accept limits on what they can do with the money. Unfortunately, after three years of lobbying, wrangling and debating over the rule, there is […]
“Protecting investors and ensuring proper corporate governance are the essence of the mission of the Securities and Exchange Commission. But you wouldn’t know that from the recent actions of the agency and its chairwoman, Mary Jo White. “Last week, the S.E.C. unwisely removed from its regulatory agenda a plan to consider a rule to require public companies to […]
“It’s been almost a year since we caused a stir by pointing out that the largest U.S. banks received a taxpayer subsidy worth an estimated $83 billion a year. What’s changed since then? “Better banking rules are coming into force, and if they work they’ll reduce the subsidy. It would be good to know exactly how […]
“December is deadline time for one of the most important unfinished pieces of businesses from the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation: the Volcker Rule. Based on an important intervention by Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in late 2009, the “rule,” whose legal intent is enshrined in […]
“In a provocative speech this week, Charles I. Plosser, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, proposed a new approach for the Federal Reserve System. The Fed, he said, should focus only on controlling inflation, strictly limit the assets it buys, follow a more rules-based approach to setting interest rates and place binding […]
“Public pension funds have been moving huge amounts of money into alternative investments managed by Wall Street. “According to a recent report by Cliffwater LLC, an adviser to institutional investors, from 2006 to 2012 state pension funds more than doubled their allocations to alternative investments, which include private equity, real estate, hedge funds and commodities. […]
“Jamie Dimon should be fired. “That seems to be the conclusion of some in the pundit class about JPMorgan Chase’s chairman and chief executive. Writers, editors and bloggers have made it clear that they want his scalp: “NOW Are We Allowed Talk About Firing Jamie Dimon?” the Huffington Post blared after news that the bank set aside $23 […]
“The debate on very large financial institutions has reached an important moment. At the instigation of Senators Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, the Government Accountability Office is assessing the extent to which big banks and others receive advantages because they have implicit backing from the government. “The stakes are high, as […]
“The United States became a superpower in the 1940s and, 70 years later, stands on the brink of losing that status. It rose to global pre-eminence at short notice, and its decline can occur just as abruptly. This week’s partial government shutdown both reminds us that the United States has reached such a precarious position and […]
“The United States has a long and generally successful track record of using “economic statecraft” to advance its positions and values in the world. It helped rebuild Europe and Japan after World War II, with a judicious mixture of aid and access to the United States markets. Similarly, as the Iron Curtain fell after 1989, […]
“Having agreed this week to pay $920 million in fines to resolve federal and international investigations into its $6 billion “London Whale” trading loss, JPMorgan Chase has reportedly reached “some closure” in the case and is ready, in the words of its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, to move forward in a process of “simplifying” the bank. […]
“Both the past and future of our financial system remain as poisonous a topic as they were five years ago, when Lehman Brothers failed. That is a lesson to draw from the forced withdrawal of Lawrence Summers, former US Treasury secretary, from the list of candidates for chair of the US Federal Reserve. For many Democrats, Mr Summers […]
“Six U.S. agencies, a congressional committee and four state regulators, not to mention Canada, three European countries and the European Commission, are investigating JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bank’s litigation expenses hit $1 billion in the first half of this year, and the bank says its legal losses could reach $6.8 billion. “So shareholders are furious, right? […]
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] or 202-618-6433.
To sign up for our email newsletter, please visit this page.
"* (Required)" indicates required fields
please contact [email protected] or 202-618-6433.
Help us fight for the public interest in our financial markets, protecting Main Street from Wall Street and avoiding another costly financial collapse and economic crisis, by making a donation today.
