Insider trading was in the news this past week. A growing national scandal was supposedly put to rest. After six years of rejecting any punitive limits on its ability to trade on insider information, Congress finally passed the Stop Trading on Knowledge, or Stock Act. Last Thursday it passed 417 to 2.
You want to know why Americans are upset with Washington’s failure to bring Wall Street criminals to justice? Just take a look below at the SEC’s pathetic track record. The biggest settlement the SEC could muster was the $550 million “record” fine imposed on Goldman Sachs for “a financial product tied to
Ready for the ol’ “good news/bad news” message? First the good news. It isn’t intelligence or lack of information that is preventing you from doing better with your stock investments. Now the bad news: Rather it’s your emotions. And the bigger the stakes, the more likely it is that your emotions will
All I can say is, what took so long? The SEC is accusing the former head of Fannie Mae, Daniel Mudd and the former head of Freddie Mac, Richard Syron, of intentional fraud. Specifically, they’re being accused of misleading the public on their vast holding of subprime mortgage. This is a civil
How did $1.2 billion disappear from the customer accounts of MF Global? Nobody knows, including (purportedly) the CEO, Mr. Corzine. When asked who could execute such a transfer, Corzine said, “I wouldn’t know probably who that person is.” Foul play is suspected and, as you’d expect, the company is under investigation. But
We were already upset enough when Congress bailed out our banks to the tune of $700 billion worth of tax payer money. And we didn’t like the fact that the Fed allowed the banks to “fake” the value of their books. But this secret $13 billion bailout really takes us over the
Buffett likes Japan. He’s over there right now, looking for opportunities. And he’s not just tossing valentines out for local consumption. This is classic Buffett, along the lines of his advice to buy when others are fearful.
Washington should be taking note. Investors are worried more about Italian risk than risk in Namibia in South West Africa! How do I know? They’ve bid Italian debt up to 6.6%. In the meantime, Namibia’s first Eurobond issue offered bonds carrying a 5.5% coupon rate.
