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Wall Street poured millions into Republican campaigns in the mid-term elections. The goal and thrust of Wall Street’s investment was to have a Congress that was friendlier to its interests and less friendly to investor protection regulation. Will Wall Street’s investment pay off? A major test of the election result […]
In the 2008 financial crisis, major banks like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were on the verge of collapse. We all remember that a taxpayer funded bailout saved those financial institutions. To avoid a wholesale financial collapse, Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, may need a similar plan of assistance or some […]
Just as market volatility has picked up steam, stock brokers, who love the hard sell and the quick commission, have once again started to increase their push of risky structured notes. Indeed, the markets have been capricious and startling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the mainstay stock indicator, has had […]
In 2008 American International Group (AIG) almost destroyed the global economy by issuing credit default swaps on billions of toxic mortgages. In the end, the giant insurer didn’t go bankrupt, instead, it was saved by Uncle Sam, receiving a $185 billion taxpayer bailout in the process, and is once again […]
Soon to be former Attorney General Eric Holder infamously mused last year that Wall Street firms and their executives were so systemically important to our financial system that – even if they commit financial crimes – they may be “too big to jail”. “I am concerned that the size of […]
Richard Thiel, the actor who portrayed the great James Bond villain, Jaws passed away last week at the age of 74. The notion of mad villains plotting global destruction therefore was on the top of our minds when the New York Times reported on Friday that hedge funds are turning […]
Like a mad leviathan from the deep that chokes and drowns its prey, the tide of bad news keeps coming for Puerto Rico and threatens to drag the island commonwealth and its bondholders under. Indeed, Puerto Rico faces a massive fight on multiple fronts. It continues to deal with a […]
Decades ago, Wall Street and its big banks were revered and were a source of trust for ordinary investors who relied on the integrity, advice and financial guidance of these firms. Indeed, Wall Street spent a fortune creating brand names like Smith Barney and Paine Weber, advertising a tradition of […]
There’s a simple universal rule in business: “put the customer’s interests first.” Remarkably, this tried and true maxim does not apply in the world of investment recommendations to customers. In the 2008 legislation called Dodd-Frank, which followed the financial crisis, Congress authorized the Securities Exchange Commission to pass a “fiduciary […]
Conditions this summer are worsening for investors in Puerto Rico’s shaky, high risk municipal bonds. As this blog recently noted, UBS clients who invested in Puerto Rico bonds face extreme risks. The Swiss bank acknowledged as much two weeks ago when it reported it was handling $600 million in damage […]