Category Archives: Derivatives

Does Wall Street Do “God’s Work”? Or Even Anything Useful?

Bank executives frequently proclaim that Wall Street is vital to the nation’s economy and performs socially valuable services by raising capital, providing liquidity to investors, and ensuring that securities are priced accurately so that money flows to where it will be most productive. There’s just one problem: the Wall Street mantra isn’t true.

SEC Shamed: Whistleblower Refuses Multimillion Dollar Award Due to Ex-Deutsche Bank Attorneys at SEC Protecting Deutsche Execs (and Themselves)

Deutsche Bank whistleblower Eric Ben-Artzi makes a huge financial sacrifice to call out corruption in SEC enforcement.

Chaos Theory, Shocks, and Fragility, Australia and Elsewhere

Australia and other countries had the opportunity to reduce financial fragility. They may soon discover the cost of doing too little.

Hensarling’s “Market Regulation” Replacement to Dodd Frank Proves He Does Not Understand Banking

Yves here. Steve Waldman wrote a definitive post in 2009, Capital can’t be measured, on a core issue that Black discusses here. A key section: So, for large complex financials, capital cannot be measured precisely enough to distinguish conservatively solvent from insolvent banks, and capital positions are always optimistically padded. Given these facts, and I […]

Tuition-Free or Debt-Free College: Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders Put Band-Aids on the Cancer

A comparison of the Clinton and Sanders campaign platforms on student loans [sic].

After Distancing Herself From Bill Clinton’s Economic Policies, Hillary Wants Him as Mr. Economic Fix It

Like the Bourbons, the Clintons appear to have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

Satyajit Das: “Stay in the Name of Reform” – The Fed and ISDA’s Derivative Bankruptcy Initiative

Why a proposal to “stay” derivatives termination in the event of bank bankruptcy is inconsequential and avoids bigger questions about the use of derivatives and failure to rein in risks in this market.

When Commodity Prices Fall

Decomposing the drivers and effects of commodity price swings.

Why I (Belatedly) Blew the Whistle on the SEC’s Failure to Properly Investigate Goldman Sachs

SEC whistleblower Jim Kidney gives more detail about his experience on the shallow investigation of Goldman and the SEC’s failings generally,

Robert Reich: Why Is One of Sanders’ Most Important Proposals Being Ignored?

Sanders’ financial transactions tax plan hasn’t gotten the hearing it deserves.

Five Big Banks Get Bad Grades on Living Wills, No One Gets Clean Pass; Admission That “Too Big to Fail” is Alive and Well

The practical and political consequences of no big banks getting a pass on their living wills.

Bill Black: “Liberal” Economists Cheered the New Democrats’ Deregulation of Finance

A case study illustrating how soi-disant liberal economists pushed the US to the right during the Clinton Administration.

Paul Krugman Crosses the Line

Krugman is increasingly discrediting himself as a commentator on economics.

Jamie Dimon Tells Us We Need to Leave Too Big to Fail Banks Alone

Jamie Dimon likes to write grandiose letters to shareholders. This year’s version is no exception.

Former Citi Vice Chairman Robert Rubin, Target of DoJ Investigation, is Too Big to Jail

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released a raft of documents from its 2010 investigation, including interviews with senior government officials like Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson, and Sheila Bair, as well as other individuals deemed to be prominent like Warren Buffett and subprime short-seller Steve Eisman. It’s hard to see the justification for keeping information from […]