Tag archive for ‘financial reform’

• Return of the Flash Crash

  11 October 10 • Comments Off

  

  It’s only a matter of time, it seems to me, before we experience another flash crash—similar to May 6 when the Dow dropped about 700 points in twenty minutes. Here’s why:

• The Mulligans of Hedgistan

  1 October 10 • 1 comment

  

  With the Dow trading over 10,700 again, the crisis of 2008 is growing long of tooth. Investors are growing short of memory. And many hedgies, who shuttered their funds due to performance, are making a comeback.

• Beach Reading without Congressional Oversight

  3 August 10 • Comments Off

  

  There’s plenty to discuss from the headlines these days. But this summer I’ve been buried with edits to my next novel, The Gods of Greenwich. And I’m staring at a few deadlines now. With this post, however, I’d like to take you back to the summer of 2007. It was a time before Bernie Madoff confessed, before AIG lost $99 billion in one year and before banker bonuses had everybody in a lather. Now two members of Congress occupy our attention, elected officials who sit in judgment even with their hands in the cookie jar (allegedly).

  Like I said. We’re going back three years to the summer of 2007. Here’s the first chapter of Top Producer, which will be out in paperback on December 28. If you stop back tomorrow or Thursday, I’ll post Chapter Two.

• Darth Goldman: The Enterprise Value Strikes Back

  16 July 10 • Comments Off

  

  Yesterday, Goldman Sachs settled fraud charges associated with Abacus CDOs for $550 million. Not surprisingly, the settlement excluded Fabrice P. Tourre, who will no doubt be hung out to dry as the Tourre de Toxic winds to a close.

  Personally, I think the government just got pimp-slapped. Here are five reasons why:

• Estate Tax Solutions from Danny Devito and Billy Crystal

  8 June 10 • 3 comments

  For the first time since 1916, there is no federal estate tax. As a result of tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, the federal estate tax disappeared on January 1 of this year. So what’s next?

  Click to read more and get groundbreaking commentary from Hollywood on this tax issue.

• Financial Reform and the Fungus Five

  20 May 10 • 3 comments

  Recently, I described financial reform as a “petri dish” of pending legislation. The government is tackling too many issues at the same time. Without constants—we don’t know how markets will react to all the moving pieces.

  It gets worse. Last night The Wall Street Journal profiled the back-room deals working their way through pending legislation. I guess you can hide anything in a 1,500 page document. And those legislative walkabouts are what trouble me.

  How can we trust financial reform when approval depends on non-related issues?

  Here are five “amendments” that have nothing to do with sub-prime debt, banking leverage, or even the flash crash of two weeks ago. I’ve dubbed them the “Fungus Five,” because they call into question the Congressional focus on “getting it right.”

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