You, dear reader, are probably detestable. As a newspaper reader, you are disproportionately likely to have money squirreled away. Maybe you keep it in the bank. That is, maybe you “save” it. Is that spittle running down your cheek? There would be, if my tongue could find a way to deliver it along with these Read More
Crises have a way of overthrowing old verities. The recent stresses affecting Europe reflect growing doubts about some heretofore settled ideas concerning credibility. Sovereign credibility was essential to stemming the first wave of the crisis. But past credibility may prove a root of future vulnerability. And the sovereigns that until recently lacked credibility-the emerging markets-may Read More
As New York State faces budget woes and the impending threat of a government shutdown, you’d expect the Legislature would find itself too occupied with problems close at hand to take on questions of international finance. Yet amid the chaos in Albany, the Senate has mooted the issue of deadbeat foreign government borrowers. Senator Brian Read More
With few exceptions, many of the CEOs and senior Wall Street executives who oversaw the financial crisis have taken their exit, having been fired or having the foresight to leave before they could get canned. Alan “Ace” Greenberg, the former chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns, is not among them. The 83-year-old has been working Read More
As the financial sector reform bill takes final shape, the S&P and credit spreads are gyrating. This suggests a mixed effect on the confidence of market participants. Meanwhile, the bill’s proponents’ confidence appears to be boundless.
As a market practitioner, I’m confident of one thing: The reformers’ confidence is misplaced. No matter how Read More
I recall the moment before I entered the alternate universe of finance. I was in a job interview, pondering whether to leave a job I loved as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, for a job I knew next to nothing about at Morgan Stanley. As we reached the end, my interviewer asked what I Read More
