Category Archives: Regulations and regulators

ObamaCare Clusterfuck: “Medical Homelessness” in California

Many of the newly insured under Obamacare are finding they can’t find doctors.

Bill Black: Since When Does Refusing to Put Fraudulent Banks into Receivership Help the Economy?

Conservative economists love “creative destruction.” They can’t wait to “get their Schumpeter on” when a business fails and thousands of workers lose their jobs.

There is no more “creative destruction” conceivable than when we put a bank that has become a fraudulent enterprise into receivership, remove the controlling officers leading the fraud, and sell the bank through an FDIC-assisted acquisition

NY Teachers’ Retirement Fund Exhibits Stockholm Syndrome, Rejects Reuters Private Equity FOIA Out of Fear of Annoying Private Equity Funds

It is hard to grasp how successful the private equity industry has been in brainwashing investors to keep information secret.

GSE Reform Dead for Now

I’m a little surprised at the overly coded reporting at the New York Times and particularly the Wall Street Journal, where Nick Timiraos provides top-notch coverage on the mortgage beat, on the implications of the failure of a widely-touted, Administration-backed GSE reform bill to get out of the Senate Banking Committee. Basically, it confirms what I’ve long believed but refrained from writing about, namely, that government sponsored enterprise, aka, GSE reform, was not going to get done in this session of Congress.

Bill Black: GAO and Wall Street Journal Whitewash Huge Criminal Bank Frauds

Every day brings multiple new scandals. At least they used to be scandals. Now they’re simply news items strained of ethical content by business journalists who see no evil, hear no evil, and speak not about evil.

Health Care Information Technology: A Danger to Physicians and to Your Health

The causes of the crapification are legion, but one that is having a bigger impact on health care than is widely recognized is bad information technology implementation. And I don’t mean the healthcare.gov website.

Abigail Field: The Government Corruption Case Against Fracking and Keystone

The debate on whether to frack or not, whether to build the Keystone pipeline or not, focuses on jobs v. environment. But this conventional framing looks past the fact that there are other ways to create jobs, and even worse, the role of government corruption in covering up the environmental costs.

Satyajit Das: Flash Boys’ HFT Mumbo Jumbo

Satyajit Das reviews Michael Lewis’ book Flash Boys. Das finds it to be deeply flawed,: deficient in its understanding of HFT and not very well written.

Volcker Rule: Swiss-Cheesed or Beefed Up?

Gerald Epstein provides an informative, layperson-accessible update on what has become of the much-ballyhooed Volcker Rule.

The Real Problem with High Frequency Trading

While Michael Lewis’ book Flash Boys is sensationalistic and simplistic, it may goad regulators into action, particular since many knowledgeable observers have been making similar arguments for years. But let’s hope they focus on the real issues.

More From Ex-SEC Lawyer James Kidney on the Agency’s Failing

Former SEC enforcement lawyer James Kidney discusses the agency’s shortcomings and suggests reforms.

Quelle Surprise! Ginnie Mae Says Bank of America Has Lots of Servicing Documents Missing; MERS Also in Hot Water

An article by Kate Berry in American Banker earlier this week hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Anyone who was paying attention to the mortgage beat in 2010 through 2012 knew that mortgage securitization originators and servicers were playing fast and loose with critical documents like mortgage notes because they couldn’t be bothered to observe […]