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We need a new Volcker rule for banks
It’s time for our financial institutions to get back to basics: making money off good customer service – not wild speculation. Financial reformers are pointing to the collapse of the $41 billion MF...
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Why it’s time to break up the ‘too big to fail’ banks
Customers would benefit, the U.S. government would benefit, and – believe it or not – the big banks themselves would do better. America is downsizing. Whether its the food we eat, the cars we drive, or...
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Volcker Rule comments: The good, the bad, and the ridiculous
The Volcker Rule is scheduled to go into effect in July, just five months from now. This is good news for folks who want a Volcker Rule, but it may be even better news for folks who desperately do not...
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The one job banks and hedge funds can’t fill
New regulations for banks and financial firms mean a booming market for experienced internal watchdogs. The banking industry has cried foul over the additional burden of Dodd-Frank regulations taking...
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What will it take for finance workers to report wrongdoing?
Turning a blind eye to the wrongdoing of colleagues has become the norm at many financial services firms. Despite the MF Global debacle, the rogue traders at UBS and Societe Generale, the subprime...
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No quick fixes for rogue trader problem
Rogue traders are rare but can be extremely dangerous. They can cause major losses, despite the fact that financial and commodity trading firms are generally extremely sophisticated in their use of...
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The regulations that bind
By Rick Jones, contributor In the world of magical realism that produced Dodd-Frank, I have had energy for only a bit of remote intellectual annoyance over the impact of the part of the Rule commonly...
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The Volcker Rule: Complexity trumps common sense
Great sound bites often make for bad policy, because things that seem wonderful and simple in the abstract frequently turn out to be hideously complicated when you try to apply them in real life. Thats...
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The Wall Street fight Elizabeth Warren just lost was pretty small
How big of a loss did financial reformers sustain in its latest battle with Wall Street? It comes to 0.5% of bank assets. Put another way, if JPMorgan Chase was an average American household and not a...
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Janet Yellen still has her knives out for Wall Street
Among the financial commentariat, there’s quite a bit of worry that the most important post-crisis regulations will be whittled away in the coming years, setting us up for another meltdown. A recent...
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The Elizabeth Warren vs Jamie Dimon feud is heating up
There are few words in the English language that strike fear in the hearts of Wall Street bankers like “Elizabeth Warren.” The senior senator from Massachusetts has led the fight for tougher...
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Can corporate accounting ever be reformed?
In a Fortune article three weeks ago, former SEC Chief Accountant Lynn Turner told me that the current accounting and auditing systems we all rely on need wholesale reform. Since then, there has been a...
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Five years later, Dodd-Frank naysayers are still wrong
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill next week, it is worth reflecting on the history of the opposition to the bill. This is useful because...
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A new Glass-Steagall for banks: One giant step for Congress, one small step...
It looks like corporate governance just might be a hot topic for the Democratic presidential primary debates. Who'd have guessed? Senators Elizabeth Warren, John McCain, Maria Cantwell, and Angus King...
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What Dodd-Frank left unfinished in financial reform
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, sometimes jokingly called "Dodd-Frankenstein." During the darkest days of the Great Recession,...
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Banks still trump citizens in the minds of regulators
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act turned five this week. The bill did not eliminate bad actors. But as economist Dean Baker explained in a Fortune article last week, the Act...
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Here’s why you should thank Congress and the SEC
There may be less grumbling in the executive and managerial ranks soon. In 2018, companies will start reporting the ratio of the full compensation of their CEOs (cash and stock, etc.) to a measure of...
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Here’s why you can’t trust a company’s financials
Audit firms seem to be spinning opinions out of thin air. At least that's the case in more than one in four audits, according to a report issued on Thursday by the Public Company Accounting Oversight...
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Barney Frank: Why Democrats Should Take Wall Street’s Money
One of Wall Street’s biggest foes argued on Thursday that accepting money from banks does not actually taint the government officials who regulate them--in fact, it might even make them better at their...
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New Rules Could Dramatically Alter the Payday Loan Market
The U.S. agency charged with protecting consumers from financial abuse unveiled a proposal on Thursday that would limit short-term borrowings known as “payday” loans, which can carry interest rates as...
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