The Fall of Silicon Valley Bank
A classic run on the bank exposes harsh realities hiding in plain sight. How will regulators and policymakers react to fears of contagion? ...
FrontPoint May Gain Independence from Morgan Stanley
The Wall Street Journal reports that Morgan Stanley may soon complete a deal to relinquish control of in-house hedge fund firm FrontPoint Partners which currently has $7 billion in assets. This move is motivated by a number of factors including ...
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
If you are already cynical about the motives and practices of professional investors in the major Wall Street banks, chances are that you are not even half as cynical as Michael Lewis. In The Big Short, Mr. Lewis spins a ...
Bill Clinton on Goldman Sachs, Financial Regulatory Reform
In the CSPAN video shown below, former President Bill Clinton comments on the SEC charges against Goldman Sachs and provides a brief account of his views regarding the problems with the financial system. Mr. Clinton specifically cites John Bogle’s views ...
13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
The privileged bankers who run institutions that are considered to be "too big to fail" do not suffer the same fate as their smaller counterparts as Simon Johnson and James Kwak describe in their forthcoming book 13 Bankers: The Wall ...
Paul Volcker: Euthanasia Rather Than Life Support for Failing Non-Banks
The Financial Times has published a five part video interview with Paul Volcker who is the head of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Mr. Volcker discusses his proposed “Volcker Rule” which would limit the proprietary trading activities of commercial ...
Can Forced Recapitalization Solve the “Too Big To Fail” Problem?
From the perspective of an outside observer, the debate over financial regulatory reform can seem like nothing more than the typical Beltway chatter full of shrill voices and political posturing. While the current debate is not free of the usual ...
Sorkin on the Making of “Too Big To Fail”
Earlier this week, we reviewed Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book Too Big To Fail which provides a very interesting inside account of the most important events of the financial crisis of 2008. In a speech at the Foreign Policy Association in ...
Goldman Sachs Board Member Bill George Comments on Financial Reforms
Yesterday, we discussed a number of lessons that must be learned from the financial crisis. In a “Tea with The Economist” interview shown below, a Goldman Sachs board member provides his insights regarding leadership during a crisis and financial reforms ...
Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Most outside observers had difficulty keeping up with all of the momentous events of the weekend of September 14-15, 2008 with all of the twists and turns that finally led to Lehman Brothers' historic bankruptcy filing, Bank of America's purchase ...