The line of thinking that underlies an investigation by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo is a challenge to conventional wisdom about the financial crisis. The prevailing view is that since credit ratings were one of the single biggest points of failure in the crisis, the ratings agencies were one of the biggest, if not […]
Read more...By Glenn Stehle, an engineer who began working in the oil industry in 1974. After a two-year stint with Cities Service Oil Company, he worked for two years for Henry Engineering, a petroleum engineering consulting firm. Upon leaving Henry Engineering he worked as an independent engineering consultant in all facets of the oil and gas […]
Read more...The collateralized debt obligation probe widens. From the Wall Street Journal: The banks under early-stage criminal scrutiny—J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG—have also received civil subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a sweeping investigation of banks’ selling and trading of mortgage-related deals, the person […]
Read more...Frank Partnoy, derivatives salesman turned law professor, took an ill fated star turn in the Financial Times today. In a comment titled, “Goldman is wrong target for official censure,” he writes (among other things): “Goldman is not to blame for the financial crisis,” a straw man if I ever saw one. I hate to say […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal reports that Morgan Stanley is under investigation for allegedly creating CDOs it used to wager against clients: Among the deals that have been scrutinized are two named after U.S. Presidents James Buchanan and Andrew Jackson, a person familiar with the matter says. Morgan Stanley helped design the deals and bet against […]
Read more...By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. The EU, IMF and friends have rolled out the shock-and-awe bailout package for Greece and the Euro. This package […]
Read more...A lot of people are still feeling very bruised by last Friday’s market actions (Felix Salmon went as far as ordering all retail investors to get out of the pool). A message from a reader with ample trading desk experience: BTW, hope you didn’t have any sell-stops yesterday, WTF was that?!?!? I covered my SPY […]
Read more...By John Ryskamp, an attorney and author of The Eminent Domain Revolt One must work to get behind the import of an enabling act, because such an act is invariably, and intentionally, short and vague. It intends to grant much, and to tell little. This is certainly true of the three acts compared here: the […]
Read more...By Glenn Stehle, an engineer who began working in the oil industry in 1974. After a two-year stint with Cities Service Oil Company, he worked for two years for Henry Engineering, a petroleum engineering consulting firm. Upon leaving Henry Engineering he worked as an independent engineering consultant in all facets of the oil and gas […]
Read more...By Richard Smith, a London-based capital markets IT specialist Here’s someone with his head screwed on, back in April 2007, who proves singlehandedly that “hoocoodanode” was no defense for failing to anticipate the implosion of the shadow banking system (more on this prescient analyst in due course): For several years now, we have marvelled at […]
Read more...The defenders of the economic orthodoxy have gotten much more shrill of late. In a perverse way, this is probably a positive sign: they might be feeling a tad worried that they are starting to lose their hold over consensus reality. But given how quick various media outlets are to pick up and amplify their […]
Read more...So far, just a headline at the Wall Street Journal: “BP Suffers Setback in Installing Containment Dome” and merely a “Breaking News” listing. From its e-mail alert: Hydrate build-up stalled placement of the containment dome over gushing oil. The BP executive of the dome said, “I would say it has failed.” Scanning other news services; […]
Read more...By Buzz Potamkin, former studio executive and producer, in the biz for 40+ years, now a consultant Every investment in film is gambling. Schuyler Moore, April 22, 2010, testimony before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities Futures are a hedge against some event yet to come, representing the desire by a participant to […]
Read more...This is a full length show with three other guests, with the topic actually being “who was to blame for the crisis, Washington or Wall Street?” I must confess, I didn’t use the obvious line: for the financial service industry’s backers to complain that lack of regulation caused the crisis is like someone who has […]
Read more...Jill has substantial financial market experience (she started out in derivatives and later ran a $700 million fund) and it was a pleasure speaking to a knowledgeable interviewer. Enjoy! First segment here. Second segment here.
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