Category Archives: Regulations and regulators

Why It Matters If Fracking Companies Are Overestimating Their ‘Proved’ Oil and Gas Reserves

Comprehensive analysis of why it matters that fracking companies are overestimating their ‘proved’ oil and gas reserves– as allowed under an SEC rule change.

How Purdue Pharma Hooked America on a Deadly Drug

Purdue Pharma’s slogan for OxyContin was: “The One to Start With and the One to Stay With.” As reader Brian C added, “Stay with alright….’Till death do us part.'”

Finally: SEC Frets about Share Buybacks, “Torrent of Corporate Trading Dominating the Market” and “Short-Term Financial Engineering”

Mirabile dictu, a Republican SEC commissioner criticizes stock buybacks….

OCC Covering Up for Wells Fargo Type Abuses at Other Banks

The OCC found lots of bad bank conduct in retail-land, but refuses to say anything about who is cheating and what they are up to.

More Brexit Insanity: Corbyn Proposes Dead-on-Arrival, Misbranded “Soft” Brexit; Auto Part Makers to Take Huge Hit; Irish Border Groundhog Daze

Brexit madness is only getting worse….

Jim Chanos on Fraud: “Cryptocurrency Is a Security Speculation Game Masquerading as a Technological Breakthrough”

The legendary short seller Jim Chanos in a wide-ranging discussion of financial frauds, starting with cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin is the last thing he’d want to own in the event of a catastrophe.

China Rx: How the US Depends on China for Its Drugs

Why does China need a military? It could bring the US to its knees in months by withholding shipments of drugs and drug ingredients.

Trump Regulators and California on Collision Course on Rolling Back Fuel Efficiency Standards

Trump regulators and California are on a collision course over efforts to roll back the previous administration’s fuel efficiency standards, due to come into effect in 2021.

Wolf Richter: Deutsche Bank CoCo Bonds Plunge, Shares Hit Record Low, after US Entity Makes FDIC’s “Problem Bank List”

Double whammy regularity revelations wallop Deutsche bonds and shares, raising the old question: When will she buckle?

Unsafe At Any Speed Redux, Self-Driving Cars, and Legal Liability

Senators seek information on testing protocols for self-driving cars; mandatory arbitration for further lawsuits involving such vehicles looms as a threat.

Brexit Becoming More Unpopular as Yet More Warts, Like VAT Administration, Come Into Focus

The latest Brexit updates aren’t very cheery.

Do Fewer Settlements by Pharmaceutical Companies Mean Even Less Accountability for Their Execs?

Drug company settlements with the Feds, which never were very tough to begin with, are also becoming less frequent.

Planet or Plastic

Planet or Plastic: more than individual solutions will be necessary to solve the problem. This is not a left/right issue.

Payday Lending Rule Survives…For Now

Congress has failed to use Congressional Review Act procedures to scupper the payday lending rule. Pending CFPB and court challenges may still doom the measure.