From the category archives:

Panic on Wall Street/Outrage on Main Street

The Banks’ Second Shoe of Deception

October 15, 2010

Having brought the economy of the United States, and a good part of the world, to the brink of a global depression, the American banking system has now unleashed a second scandal.  This one involves an epidemic of cheating and lying in court filings by those handling home repossessions.  It has been happening for many [...]

Read the full article →

Lessons from Europe’s Past for an Uneasy World Today

May 8, 2010

What is happening in Greece and elsewhere in Europe should cause leaders to recall how easily the  seeds of disaster are  sewn amid the winds of resentment and desperation. Sixty-five years ago, the Allied forces accepted the unconditional surrender of the German military regime, bringing an end to the war in Europe.  It took formal [...]

Read the full article →

Still Searching for Signs of Life on the Bear Stearns Board

May 4, 2010

Corporate governance at the failed Wall Street giant had all the hallmarks of a disengaged boardroom stacked with cronies and dominated by insiders. Finally, Congress can shed some light on where the board was at Bear Stearns — or if it existed at all. Former Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne will be making a rare [...]

Read the full article →

Goldman’s Exhibits of Wall Street Insincerity

April 28, 2010

Collectively, in their pivotal appearance before Congress, Goldman’s top performers could not muster the sincerity, transparency or gravitas of a used car salesman.  It is unlikely to play well on Main Street. Nothing illustrates the folly and arrogance of Wall Street more than the appearance of the Goldman Sachs executives who testified yesterday before the [...]

Read the full article →

Outrage of the Week: Alice in Boardland and Other Fairy Tales About Lehman Brothers

April 23, 2010

Leonard Lance, (R.NJ): Mr. Cruikshank, to follow up in your remarks.   Do you believe there were corporate governance failures at Lehman? Thomas Cruikshank, Chairman, Lehman board auit committee: No, I don’t. I think our governance procedures were really very, very good. House Committee on Financial Services, April 20, 2010 A number of revealing facts emerged from [...]

Read the full article →

The Examiner of Lehman’s Untoasted Boardroom Marshmallows

March 14, 2010

The court-appointed Examiner chose to continue the same lackadaisical approach to directorial performance and accountability in his search for answers as the directors themselves evidenced in their drowsy drift toward disaster. A little noted statement in the report of the court-appointed Examiner in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy reveals the extent of the deference displayed to [...]

Read the full article →

“Catch Me if You Can” and Other Fine Relics from the Lehman Boardroom

March 11, 2010

Once again, an inept board escapes culpability through a Houdini-like contrivance called the business judgment rule, one of the most anti-shareholder and destructive of legal principles ever to emerge in modern times. Lehman Brothers made a brief return in the news today, just long enough to fall into another abyss of folly and misjudgment that [...]

Read the full article →

The Half-Baked Pie that Hit Bank of America Shareholders in the Face

February 24, 2010

The settlement was not crafted to act as a deterrent to future wrongdoing or to give the investing public confidence that the SEC is looking out for their interests in this post-Madoff era. U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff had finally approved the settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America.  Our [...]

Read the full article →

Bank of America – SEC Settlement | Problem #2 (The Houdini Effect)

February 11, 2010

Regulators and the investing public need to demand that boards of directors be placed on the front line of accountability and not be allowed to slip away from scrutiny like some escape artist in a circus act. The SEC’s settlement with Bank of America, still to be approved by the court, raises another question beyond [...]

Read the full article →