Latest Commentary

John Paulson faces his future

October 12, 2011 | By
In the hedge fund industry, the star of stars over the past few years has been John Paulson, who was putting together a legendary track record. He was on track to be placed someday in the same

Bank of America defends fee, small banks see opportunity

October 5, 2011 | By
So how elastic is consumer demand for debit cards and checking accounts? We may be about to find out. It's fair to say that the move by Bank of America to hike debit card fees on its millions of

Durbin Amendment winners, losers

September 30, 2011 | By
The new lower interchange fees are scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1, and in the final days of the old order, we are seeing some interesting moves. Bank of America generated big headlines for its

UBS rogue trader Kweku Adoboli: Shades of Jerome Kerviel

September 17, 2011 | By
The Kweku Adoboli story at UBS sounds all too much like the Jerome Kerviel story at Societe Generale. Both worked back office or middle office when they started at their banks, building up a massive

How can private equity regain its luster?

September 15, 2011 | By
The private equity business stands at a crossroads as the industry pioneers eye retirement and the need to go public, as the top firms struggle to diversify, and as returns to limited partners

A muddled, unsatisfying end to the GSE saga?

September 9, 2011 | By
So are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac victims or perpetrators of the one of the great financial frauds in recent memory? Judging from the spate of regulatory activity, the only conclusion is that they

The myth of a falling stock price factors in Bank of America vs. blogs battle

August 23, 2011 | By
You know a bank is on the defensive when it responds to a popular blogger in a manner that falls short of professionalism while nevertheless making some good points. Is this a sign that it has lost

"Moral rot" on Wall Street

August 20, 2011 | By
Former investment banker William Cohan has emerged as one of the more incisive critics of all that ails Wall Street by dint of his book "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World,"

What to make of the S&P downgrade of U.S. debt?

August 6, 2011 | By
Standard & Poor's has taken a principled stand on the U.S. government's ability to lower its soaring deficit, lowering its rating on long-term Treasury debt to AA+ from AAA. Many people are

MERS changes to survive

August 6, 2011 | By
We noted recently that it looks like MERS will survive. But it will certainly not be the same firm that caused some much controversy over the last few years. The firm, of course, was designed to
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