Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
A rant, yes, but enjoyable. "Romney wants us to believe that critics of private equity are against capitalism. They’re not. They’re against a predatory system created and perpetuated by Wall Street solely to pump its own profits"
Inside the world of computer-driven hedge funds. Many billions of dollars move around markets in automated dealing based on trend analysis. Funds had performed well. But growing competition is now driving search for new algorithms
Facebook, Google and others have latched onto wheeze of having two classes of share, so they can sell ownership stakes while keeping voting rights for themselves. Why? Because they can. And it's part of a significant shift in power
The Obama government has rationalised its failure to prosecute anyone (literally, anyone at all) for bubble-related crimes by saying that while much of Wall St's behaviour was unwise or unethical, it wasn't illegal. What rubbish
Tick-tock on the London Whale fiasco. Jamie Dimon personally authorised the trading strategy that may end up costing JP Morgan $5bn. But he didn't follow closely its execution. Until he noticed the bank was losing $100m a day
JPMorgan Chase is too big to fail; it operates with the implicit backing of the US government. So its recent trading losses should be investigated independently. In the same way as air crashes and near misses are investigated
"I know Dimon isn’t resigning. But maybe someday someone in his position will. And maybe they’ll actually say, 'What I did wasn’t good for America.' And maybe we’ll become a society again, not just an amalgamation of consumers"
"Dimon argued that the financial system could be trusted; that the near-meltdown of 2008 was a perfect storm that would never happen again." Well, it doesn't look that way now, after he was forced to announce huge trading losses
In 2010 Obama passed Dodd-Frank, 2,300 pages of regulation with which to end Wall Street corruption. But world of finance fought back, soon brought government to heel. How? Simple: Complain, sue, stall, bully, then exploit loopholes
Bankers' pay is too high by a factor of three. Which is bad for banks, politically and economically. "By failing to handle a business problem at the proper time, the boards of banks have turned it into a wider social issue" ($)
Everyone who joins an investment bank plans to make a fortune, get out, and do something else. They rarely succeed. "The culture of Wall Street is pervasive and contagious. Before I occupied Wall Street, Wall Street occupied me"
Excellent, authoritative and measured overview of today's economic ills. Much papering-over of cracks in past few decades. Status quo ante not a good place to return to. So here are some suggestions for ways forward (PDF)
Barney Frank, on JP Morgan's $2bn trading loss
"JP Morgan Chase, entirely without any help from the government has lost, in this one set of transactions, five times the amount they claim financial regulation is costing them"
