Category Archives: Regulations and regulators

Wikileaks Exposes Super Secret, Regulation-Gutting Financial Services Pact

The document that Wikileaks exposed on Thursday is a portion of the financial services section. It is clearly designed to serve the pet interests of big international players. This agreement is designed to institutionalize the current level of deregulation as a baseline and facilitate the introduction of new products, further ease the movement of funds, data, and key personnel, and facilitate cross-border acquisitions and other forms of market entry.

Repeated Foreclosures on an On-Time Borrower Demonstrate Failure to Fix Servicing and Fallacy of “Save Banks at All Costs” Policy

Repeated foreclosure attempts against an on-time borrower reveal why servicing remains hopelessly broken. That also means government guaranteed mortgages are here to stay.

New Zealand: The Shell Company Incorporation Franchises: Round-Up

In a series of recent posts on shell company incorporation scams, we reanalysed the New Zealand entities incorporated by GT Group (Ian Taylor), New Zealand Company Incorporators (Michael Taylor) and The Company Net (Glenn Smith). Curiously, some modest and uncontroversial reforms have yet to be enacted.

Anat Admati Discusses the Still-Too-Big-to-Fail Banks on Bill Moyers

Anat Admati, deemed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the US, debunks the idea that the too-big-to-fail problem has been fixed. And she takes some swipes at Timothy Geithner.

SEC Commissioner Kara Stein Declares War on SEC Chair Mary Jo White

In demanding tougher regulations, SEC commissioner Kara Stein is taking the unheard-of step of crossing swords with Mary Jo White, a chairman from the same party.

ND Ethics Law Potentially Broken on Petraeus Fracking Trip for Private Equity Kingpin KKR

Steve Horn of DeSmogBlog has done important original reporting and uncovered what could be impermissible dealings between North Dakota officials and David Petraeus, in his role as emissary for one of private equity’s best-known players, KKR.

More on CalPERS’ Sloppy Private Equity Records and Its Aggressive Stonewalling

What is CalPERS trying to hide? The pension fund sweetly professes that we should have the data we’ve asked for, but won’t provide it. It’s latest move shows how deeply it is committed to scorched-earth strategies in dealing with us.

Student Loan Servicer Corruption Rewarded, Covered For in New Round of Obama Executive Actions

It is student loan week in the Democratic Party. Elizabeth Warren’s bill to refinance prior loans to the current 3.86% rate (including private loans owned by the likes of Sallie Mae), gets a vote on Wednesday. Yesterday, the President endorsed that bill, and threw in his own executive memorandum to, as the White House puts it, “make student loans more affordable.” Today, Obama will show up on Tumblr to further make the sale.

Larry Summers’ Contradictory and Dishonest Defense of Administration’s Bank-Focused Crisis Response

Larry Summers, like Tim Geithner, wants the public to believe that rescuing banks and leaving citizens to rot was the right crisis response. But neither experts, nor people who followed the crisis, nor voters at large are buying what Team Obama is trying to sell.

The SEC’s Mary Jo White Punts on High Frequency Trading and Abandons Securities Act of 1934

SEC chairman Mary Jo White made clear in a new speech that she’s not going to do much about high frequency trading.

SEC chairman Mary Jo White spoke on Thursday about high frequency trading. She made clear that she not going to do much to curb it but will engage in more studies so as to look to be Doing Something.

Negative ECB Deposit Rate: But What Next?

The ECB is expected to cross a Rubicon today by implementing negative deposit rates. What is the impact likely to be?

Obama’s Climate Plan is Leaking Methane

Obama’s climate plan encourages electrical plants to convert from coal to natural gas, completely ignoring methane as a potent greenhouse gas.

New Zealand: the Shell Company Incorporation Franchises (V) (and Panama and Switzerland)

Yet more live connections between New Zealand companies and international organized crime, plus some Panama and Switzerland, too

The KKR Capstone Scam: A Picture Worth 10,000 Words

A revealing image, and more investigation of KKR’s all-too-clever wordsmithing strongly indicate its claim that KKR Capstone is not an affiliate does not stand up to scrutiny. This is a serious charge because if the critics are right, KKR is embezzling.

Ilargi: The Illusionary Economy Revives Helocs, the Home ATM

Yves here. Ilargi is duly skeptical of the enthusiastic financial press response to an increase in home equity liquidation, um, borrowing using home equity lines of credit, or Helocs. While the party line is that this development reflects an rise in home equity and increased consumer confidence, Ilargi stresses that prices appreciation that the Fed has created, the Fed can also take away. I have to wonder how many of these Heloc borrowers are doing so out of necessity or near-desperation.