From the category archives:

Financial Regulatory Reform

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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It’s the Fed, Not the Politburo

September 21, 2009

Even before the current crisis, the Fed was a powerful institution with few rivals for its Kremlin-like curtain of secrecy.  Now, it seems fated to acquire even more sweeping powers, with only a few followers of Jeffersonian ideals in Congress seemingly interested or capable of questioning that move. It is widely held that some public [...]

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The Missing Question in the Obama Regulatory Reforms: Where Was the Board? | Part 1

June 18, 2009

Had there been no board at all at AIG, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, General Motors and so many others, it is hard to imagine how the outcome could have been any worse for those institutions and their investors. This is a stunning indictment of a vital and much relied upon function of modern [...]

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