William K. Black on MF Global

Bill Black was on Capital Account talking to Lauren Lyster about MF Global. As usual, Capital Account delves deep into the real issues. Black never disappoints. Video below

Video: Mockumentary Presents: Politics in America

An in-depth (and cynical) look at the current political environment in America, from the Occupy Wall Street protesters to the President’s reaction to the Republican Primary via Omid Malekan, creator of the Quantitative Easing Explained and European Crisis Explained videos

Don’t change the change!

A year later everyone is catching on about Fed policy and net interest margins

Last November, in anticipation of QE2, I wrote a post called “How Quantitative Easing and Permanent Zero are Toxic To Bank Net Interest Margins”. The gist of the post was that if the ‘extended period’ for low rates was too long, net interest margins would suffer, especially during a recession. I was looking at Japan and their economic policies and seeing low yields and super-low net interest margins killing bank earnings. Now that we are seeing more movement down on net interest margins (BofA and Wells Fargo both showed margin compression for example), the mainstream media is finally catching on to the connection between Fed policy and net interest margins. You heard it here first though

Jon Stewart: Grecian Burn

Young people and the elderly throw incendiary devices and yogurt to protest Greece’s proposed austerity measures

The $50 Billion Myth – Facebook and Goldman Sachs

By Alex Daley, Casey’s Extraordinary Technology The past few weeks have seen a flurry of news in technology with the mega-sized Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas ushering in the first new platform for Microsoft Windows in over a decade, the announcement of at least 40 forthcoming mobile phones to be the first class labeled

High Frequency Trading – Tradenator 2: Settlement Day

The same guy who gave us the Quantitative Easing Explained video, produced this hilarious take on high frequency trading last year. The Terminator is out to stop it! Enjoy.     Source: malekanoms

“The Smart Money is Selling Debt”

If you are a corporate CFO, now is the time to issue bonds because interest rates are very low, courtesy of the Federal Reserve. And companies are doing that from IBM, to J&J and Microsoft. These companies don’t need the money; they see ‘free money’ in the form of abnormally low rates and decide to

Goldman’s Gets 25% to 35% of Revenue From Derivatives

No wonder Goldman has resisted derivatives regulation so fiercely. A huge percentage of the firm’s revenue comes from these activities (hat tip R.W.). The Wall Street Journal is reporting that as much as a third of the firm’s revenue came from derivatives last year. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that

Goldman Fraud Case With SEC Settled

Goldman Sachs (GS) and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) have announced a settlement of the suit over the Abacus security case which was a civil action charging fraud by Goldman. According to the SEC announcement, which I watched on CNBC, Goldman will pay $550 million in disgorgement and penalties. In spite of this being

DON’T Let Goldman Be Goldman

Wallace Tuberville writes that if we let Goldman go back to its old ways, no one wins. This post originally appeared at New Deal 2.0. William D. Cohan’s op-ed piece in the July 7th New York Times had the same title as this article, but for the word “Don’t.” At first glance, I thought the

Goldman may settle fraud case on lesser charge

I expected this (hat tip Scott). Goldman Sachs is hoping to avoid the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charge of fraud by reaching a settlement on a lesser offence and agreeing to a fine of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to people familiar with the bank’s negotiating position. Goldman, which has been accused of civil

The Age of The Trader

I have written a number of posts which point to a shift in the center of power on Wall Street from the client-facing advisory business to the market-making trading business. I think understanding this shift is vital to understanding what caused the financial crisis and to understanding the defense that Goldman Sachs has proffered for