Posts Tagged ‘Financial Regulatory Reform’
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
Today is the one-year anniversary of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Funny as it only seemed like yesterday that we were trying to understand the various components of the massive legislation as Congress debated it.
There hasn’t been a piece of legislation so debated, maligned and blamed for negative consequences prior to most of the underlying elements of it going into affect since, well since the Obama Heath Care reform, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA.
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Tags: bailout, CFTC, Financial Regulatory Reform
Posted in Credit crisis, Federal Reserve, Regulatory/actions, economy | No Comments »
Friday, July 15th, 2011
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s roiled the markets yesterday with a pronouncement that it has placed the United States of America’s “’AAA’ long-term and ‘A-1+’ short-term sovereign credit ratings on CreditWatch with negative implications.”
This comes on the heels of a possible Moody’s downgrade announcement a day prior. “Moody’s Investors Service has placed the Aaa bond rating of the government of the United States on review for possible downgrade given the rising possibility that the statutory debt limit will not be raised on a timely basis, leading to a default on U.S. Treasury debt obligations.”
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Tags: bailout, economy, Financial Regulatory Reform
Posted in General, creidt crisis | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 6th, 2011
A lot already has been written about today being the one year anniversary of the “Flash crash.” Most of the articles out there are throwing out a couple numbers and giving a perspective of whether changes made since then are having any sort of effect to prevent another “incident.” That’s fine, but sometimes it’s important to just go back and remember why this was a big deal. (more…)
Tags: CFTC, Financial Regulatory Reform, Flash crash, May 6, May 6 Flash crash, SEC, Stock market
Posted in Markets, Regulatory/actions | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 8th, 2011
Did you ever have a friend who is in the know of what “everybody” or “they” say? You know the type. People who like to make broad arguments and assume it is universally supported by some mysteriously random authority.
I thought of this when reading a report in Crain’s this week of how, surprisingly, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin came out in support of Dodd-Frank. The problem is Griffin came out in support of Dodd-Frank months ago, a point we made at the time. And he is not the only one. Other managers and investment professionals have supported putting more restrictions on markets, particularly over-the-counter markets.
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Tags: Federal Reserve, Financial Regulatory Reform, OTC
Posted in Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
Last night while channel surfing I came across CSPAN and saw Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), testifying before a Congressional committee. The discussion was disturbing and the conclusions that were drawn were equally disturbing. The conclusions were basically that TARP succeeded in bailing out the large investment banks but failed in its other mission. Specifically in getting credit flowing to help small business and individual Americans—you know the folks who paid for it — and create jobs. (more…)
Tags: bailout, Financial Regulatory Reform, TARP
Posted in Regulatory/actions, creidt crisis | No Comments »
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
“The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done. If we accept this notion, it will happen again…. It falls to us to make different choices if we want different results.”
These are the words of the task force that wrote the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report released in January. These 10 commissioners were tasked by Congress to determine what caused the 2008 financial meltdown. After hearing about possible exemptions of certain firms from the Dodd-Frank Act by those in Congress, I read this report. It irks me that some of those responsible are the loudest naysayers of reform. Even the task force notes: “Some on Wall Street and in Washington with a stake in the status quo may be tempted to wipe from memory the events of this crisis….” So let’s have at it…what were the group’s main conclusions? (more…)
Tags: bailout, Congress, dodd-frank, Economic outlook, economy, Federal Reserve, financial crisis inquiry report, Financial Regulatory Reform
Posted in Regulatory/actions, economy | No Comments »
Thursday, February 10th, 2011
On the heels of the AOL purchase of the Huffington Post, and Arianna Huffington taking mostly cash in lieu of AOL stock as payment, a new study on bank CEO compensation came to the conclusion that executives of banks should only receive restricted stock and stock options, forcing them to hold on to company stock or options for two to four years after they leave the company. All in all this would work better for shareholders, especially as the study found bank execs involved in much of the bad behavior during the financial crisis were more likely to be involved in sell trades of company stock than open-market buy trades. Talk about insider trading. Here is Simon Johnson’s blog on the study.
Tags: AOL, Arianna Huffington, bank CEO study, Financial Regulatory Reform
Posted in Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Friday, February 4th, 2011
In the year 2010, ground-breaking legislation was passed by Congress that would curb transgressions that helped cause the 2008 financial crisis. Also in 2010, mid-term elections changed the balance of the U.S. Congress, giving Republicans a majority in the House with Democrats retaining a majority, barely, in the Senate. Thus the financial reform bill is targeted by the new House majority, who promises to rip it apart. (more…)
Tags: Congress, Financial Regulatory Reform, Flash crash, forex
Posted in Markets, Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
