Post Tagged with: "regulation"
On JPM’s Dimon’s still unassailable position and Facebook as the new Yahoo
I spoke to Paul Waldie and Brian Milner of the Globe & Mail on BNN’s headline on Monday. The big story was JPMorgan Chase and the London Whale trades. JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon, as the leading lobbyists for the hands-off regulatory approach for US banks, has become a lightning rod for criticism of too big to fail banks in the US. Even so, I think it’s unlikely that Dimon will be forced out of his position. We also talked about Yahoo and the oversubscribed Facebook IPO. They are going to have to execute really, really well to justify the IPO valuation
[Premium] Daily commentary: On JPMorgan’s gigantic mistake
The big headline today is still JPMorgan Chase and it’s huge trading losses. Clearly this is a black eye for JPM but the question goes to what longer term consequences the incident will have
Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein on Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg TV spoke to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein today in a much discussed interview. Below is the video and partial transcript of that interview. I provide it without comment
Bank of Canada: House price-to-income ratio outstrips norm by 35%
I have noted a number of times in the past that household debt levels in Canada have reached worrying levels. I am not the only one on to this. Canadian central bank head Mark Carney was in the news yesterday sounding the alarm on this as well. Mark Carney noted that Canadian household debt is being driven by a rise in house prices that has caused the house price/income ratio to now be 35% above the norm in Canada
The Silver Anniversary of the “Keating Five” Meeting — Citizens United’s Precursor
April 9, 2012 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the most infamous savings and loan fraud, Charles Keating’s, successful use of five U.S. Senators to escape sanction for a massive violation of the law. The Senators were Alan Cranston (D. CA), Dennis DeConcini (D. AZ), John Glenn (D OH), John McCain (R. AZ), and Donald Riegle (D. MI). They became infamous as the “Keating Five.” I was one of four regulators who attended the April 9, 1987 meeting. I took the notes of the meeting, in transcript format, that were so detailed and accurate that the Senators testified that they were sure I had tape recorded the meeting. Reviewing my (near) transcript of the April 9 offers a large number of important lessons that would have allowed us to avoid future crises
The worst anti-regulatory travesties in the financial sphere have had broad, bipartisan support
The imminent passage of the fraud-friendly JOBS Act caused me to reflect on the fact that the worst anti-regulatory travesties in the financial sphere have had broad, bipartisan support. The Garn-St Germain Act of 1982, which deregulated savings and loans (S&Ls) and helped drive the debacle, was passed with virtually no opposition. The Texas and California S&L deregulation acts – the two states that “won” the regulatory “race to the bottom” – passed with virtually no opposition. Texas S&L failures caused over 40% of total S&L losses and California failures caused roughly 25% of total losses. In 1984, a majority of the members of the House of Representatives, including Newt Gingrich and most of the leadership of both parties, co-sponsored a resolution calling on us to cease our reregulation of the S&L industry
The JOBS Act will create an extraordinarily criminogenic environment
The JOBS Act is insane on many levels. It creates an extraordinarily criminogenic environment in which securities fraud will become even more out of control. One of the forms of insanity is the belief that one can “win” a regulatory “race to the bottom.” The only winning move is not to play in a regulatory race to the bottom. The primary rationale for the JOBS Act is the claim that we must win a regulatory race to the bottom with the City of London by adopting even weaker protections for investors from securities fraud than does the United Kingdom (UK)
Smoking Gun at MF Global
Bloomberg News allegedly has an e-mail demonstrating that Jon Corzine, MF Global’s CEO, gave “direct instructions” to his underlings to transfer $200 million from one customer account to another account in order to meet an overdraft in one of the company’s JPMorgan Chase London accounts
Bill Black on the MF Global Cover-up
Here’s another appearance by Bill Black spoke to RT’s Lauren Lyster this past Wednesday about regulatory action in the MF Global case
[Premium] Daily Commentary: Net Capital Rules and the Credit Crisis
This daily commentary is a bronze-level post for Pro subscribers. Two articles worth reading on the 2004 change in net capital rules for investment banks are highlighted in today’s links
Chris Whalen on the Fed’s stress tests
Chris Whalen is a highly regarded banking analyst who has been quite critical of the goings on with banks and their regulators. However, he is very even-handed in his assessment of the Fed’s latest stress tests of the largest 19 banks
Anecdotes of Mortgage Fraud
Appraisers are pursuing class action suits against banks, asserting they were blacklisted if they refused to engage in fraudulent appraisals. The problem is that if they win, they are then subject to suit by homeowners (who are losing their homes) since they overpaid, and got mortgage loans that were far too high relative to “fundamentals”