Thursday, December 4, 2008
I attended the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) open meeting for adoption of the Final Rules for credit rating agencies in Washington yesterday … these are the rules which regulate Standard & Poors (MHP) , Moody’s (MCO) and Fitch.
I’ve been writing comments to the SEC on this issue since 2003 and it’s amazing to see how [...]
New York Times
Op-Ed Contributor, By Christopher Cox
Published: October 18, 2008
Swapping Secrecy for Transparency
~~~~ “The historic volatility in the financial markets has raised important questions about the lack of meaningful regulation of financial instruments known as credit-default swaps. The $85 billion government rescue last month of the insurance conglomerate American International Group, for example, was needed [...]
**** This is cool news in the WSJ.com…
~~~~ “The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is exploring expanding its financial-ratings system over the issue of derivatives valuations and their effect on insurers.
Sandy Praeger, president of the organization of state insurance regulators and insurance commissioner of Kansas, says some insurance companies have been downgraded by the [...]
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Creating transparency in the fixed income markets
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: fixed income)
Here is a set of policy recommendations for the global financial system that we can get behind… from the comment section of Floyd Norris’ blog…
+ + + + +
For the markets to work efficiently, we need the following:
1. Build a Superstructure to oversee all Central Banks… IMF may or may not be mandated to play [...]
Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism) and Daniel Gross (Newsweek, Slate and The Big Money) discuss the shadow banking system, market structure, the CDS auction settlement process, the failure of Lehman Brothers, legislative and regulatory efforts and some ways forward… (running time = 27:45)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Transparency… more transparency…
SEC Chairman Cox gave opening remarks for the 21st Century Disclosure Initiative Roundtable and talked about transparency for the CDS market … his statement was the most serious effort to rein in the markets spiralling out of control that I have heard…
~~~~ “The reason for this aggressive enforcement investigation into credit default swaps [...]
Yes… there is material, non-public information in the fixed income markets… and the former General Counsel of UBS is paying a big fine today for acting on non-public information to his advantage… from the Securities Law Prof Blog…
~~~~ ” New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced a $6.5 million settlement with David Aufhauser, a top [...]
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Cloud Study, c. 1820s, by John Constable, Oil on artist’s board
When I lived in New York City I used to keep up the garden of my church, Church of the Ascension, at 10th Street and 5th Avenue.
I got to know a delightful, elderly couple from the church who took great delight in the work I [...]
Friday, September 12, 2008
Credit ratings = fig leaves?
Sure… on many levels…. the use of credit ratings for regulatory purposes had become excessive…
Ratings were the “hall pass” or token that allowed entities or individuals to own specific securities… old paradigm…
Although ratings are only an “opinion” on the credit worthiness of a security high ratings often were used as a proxy [...]