Archive for the ‘When Regulation Goes Wrong’ Category

The Banking Crisis Rewrites the Textbooks: How Computers Reregulated the Banking System While We Slept. Part 1

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

In the endless debate between Computo-phobes and Techno-philes I put myself in the category none-of-the-above. What computers do is neutral as I see it – the question is, “What do programmers and their management do with the opportunities computers create?” In the banking business, the effect of computers has been ubiquitous ...

The Financial-Crisis-Related Legal Investigations of Rating Agencies: Another Dry Hole

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

In an earlier post, I predicted that law suits against financial institutions flowing from the Subprime Mortgage Crisis will come to nothing. Not because the targets were not guilty of fraud. On the contrary, because they are guilty of fraud that had been encouraged by federal bank regulators, who are ...

The Subprime Mortgage Crisis-related Legal Investigations Will Discover Fraud and then Go Away Quietly.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

The SEC, FBI, Justice  Department, and New York State Attorney General’s Office, and French and German government regulatory authorities are all “looking into” the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. These agencies are investigating Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, UBS, Barclays, HSBC, Standard and Poors, Moody’s, Fitch, Countrywide, and The ...

The Bond Insurers: A Game of “Reverse Three Card Monty.”

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

Lunchtime on Wall Street has a flavor all its own. The streets are dominated by pirate CD stands and floating games of Three Card Monty. This is a very simple game. There are three cards on the table. The dealer turns one face up; let’s say it’s the Ace of ...