Salon.com > Finance http://www.salon.com Fri, 03 May 2013 03:47:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 House Finance chair hits slopes with Wall Street lobbyists http://www.salon.com/2013/04/30/house_finance_chair_hits_the_slopes_with_banking_industry_reps_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/30/house_finance_chair_hits_the_slopes_with_banking_industry_reps_partner/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:01:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13285966 ProPublica

In January, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, ascended to the powerful chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. Six weeks later, campaign finance filings and interviews show, Hensarling was joined by representatives of the banking industry for a ski vacation fundraiser at a posh Park City, Utah, resort.

The congressman’s political action committee held the fundraiser at the St. Regis Deer Valley, the “Ritz-Carlton of ski resorts” known for its “white-glove service” and for its restaurant by superstar chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/30/house_finance_chair_hits_the_slopes_with_banking_industry_reps_partner/feed/ 4 Latest from Boston http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/liveblog_latest_from_boston/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/liveblog_latest_from_boston/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:37:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13272416 Updated: 5:01 p.m.

The organizing body pledges to run the maration next year. Here's the complete statement from Thomas Grilk, Executive Director of the Boston Athletic Association.

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) extends its deepest sympathies to all those who were affected by Monday's tragic events. Those who lost their lives and were injured are in our thoughts and prayers.

It is a sad day for the City of Boston, for the running community, and for all those who were here to enjoy the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. What was intended to be a day of joy and celebration quickly became a day in which running a marathon was of little importance.

We want to express our deepest gratitude to all of the B.A.A. medical personnel and volunteers and the City of Boston’s first responders who reacted so courageously to help save lives. Special thanks to the loyal Boston Marathon community – over 8500 volunteers, 1000 medical personnel, the organizing committee, and hundreds of thousands along the race route – who make the experience what it is for all our runners, who are hurting today.

We would like to thank the countless people from around the world who have reached out to support us over the last 24 hours.

We are cooperating with the City of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and all federal law enforcement officials in the investigation and the effort to bring those responsible for this tragedy to justice, so we are limited in what information we can provide.

Boston is strong. Boston is resilient. Boston is our home. And Boston has made us enormously proud in the past 24 hours. The Boston Marathon is a deeply held tradition – an integral part of the fabric and history of our community. We are committed to continuing that tradition with the running of the 118th Boston Marathon in 2014.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/liveblog_latest_from_boston/feed/ 23 Wall Street Dem covers up her past and runs again http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/wall_street_dem_covers_up_her_past_and_runs_again/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/wall_street_dem_covers_up_her_past_and_runs_again/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13267659 Pity the poor Wall Street Democrat. Well, you don't need to pity them that much, because they're rich, but the Wall Street Democrats are in a bit of a tough place right now, what with leftish ideas once again resurgent in the Democratic Party and everyone in America still hating everyone involved in high finance, with very good reason.

So what are you to do if, say, you spent years working as a hedge fund attorney, and all your friends and colleagues are in the finance industry, but you really, really want to get elected to something in a liberal city as a Democrat? If you're Reshma Saujani, you just pretend you never had anything to do with Wall Street and hope no one digs too deep.

Saujani is running for New York City public advocate. New York's public advocate, one of only three city-wide elected offices, is sort of like the city's "ombudsman." The advocate's job is essentially to annoy the mayor as much as possible, and then run for that office. The advocate is expected, to put it broadly, to look out for "the little guy," against the city's bureaucracy and police department and so on. The job, thus far, has always gone to liberal, populist figures; Democrats have held the post since it was created in 1994, even as the city repeatedly elected Republican mayors.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/wall_street_dem_covers_up_her_past_and_runs_again/feed/ 8 Bailed-out banks misused funds to pay back TARP http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/bailed_out_banks_misused_funds_to_pay_back_tarp/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/bailed_out_banks_misused_funds_to_pay_back_tarp/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:47:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13266833 Money that was intended to boost lending in the wake of the financial crisis was instead used by bailed-out banks to repay TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds from the government. A new report from a government watchdog overseeing TARP noted that a number of community banks used small-business lending funds solely to repay the government. Special Inspector General Christy Romero, who authored the report, said that for some small banks, the small-business lending fund "turned out to be little more than a TARP exit strategy."

Via HuffPo:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/bailed_out_banks_misused_funds_to_pay_back_tarp/feed/ 2 Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks’ worth of compensation http://www.salon.com/2013/04/09/bank_stole_your_house_have_10_pitchforks_worth_of_compensation/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/09/bank_stole_your_house_have_10_pitchforks_worth_of_compensation/#comments Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:15:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13266161 First as tragedy, then as farce. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced Tuesday details of how much money the banks will pay homeowners who were found to be wrongfully foreclosed on, or who suffered financial harm at the hands of the banks. Just as a sampling, individuals who had loan modifications approved by banks but were still foreclosed upon will receive a paltry $300. Six hundred seventy-nine people were faced with foreclosure even though they were never once in default; they will be compensated $5,000.

Former Wall Street V.P. and current Occupy Wall Street activist and member of Strike Debt Alexis Goldstein took it upon herself Tuesday to put the payouts in a little context. She created a site detailing "What You Can Buy for Having Your House Stolen," on which she lists a varied taxonomy of items the compensation can afford wrongfully foreclosed individuals -- all the items that are not your house back. Goldstein told Salon via email, "I'm hoping to (1) draw attention to the OCC, one of the lesser-known banking regulators who are completely captured by the banks. (2) point out how egregiously low these settlement numbers are."

We thought we'd pick out some of Goldstein's choice examples to drive the message home in the following slideshow. (All slideshow text from Goldstein's forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com)

[slide_show id=13266186]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/09/bank_stole_your_house_have_10_pitchforks_worth_of_compensation/feed/ 5 Reagan aide disqualifies himself from the conversation http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/don%e2%80%99t_catch_his_eye_david_stockman%e2%80%99s_alien_abduction_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/don%e2%80%99t_catch_his_eye_david_stockman%e2%80%99s_alien_abduction_partner/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:08:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13261637 I hope I’m not being narrow-minded, but it seems to me there is a small number of enthusiasms that immediately disqualify those who indulge them as serious thinkers or policymakers.  When you learn that your Federal Reserve Chairman was an acolyte of Ayn Rand, for example, or that someone in Congress involved with budget policy remains a Rand devotee, you know instantly something’s gone terribly wrong.  You might even begin wondering whether this isn’t some monstrous financial equivalent of Caligula’s appointing a horse to the Roman Senate – or a ‘Rand’ to the American one.

We’ve all had the feeling:  You fall into conversation with some stranger on the subway or bus.  Or perhaps you are seated beside him at a concert or some other event.  Whatever the venue or circumstance, the conversation goes pleasantly for a while.  Your interlocutor makes various interesting observations about this subject or that.  He shows himself to experience the world much as do you and most others you’ve known.  He might even say something arrestingly perceptive or thoughtful at some juncture during your chat.  Then, without warning, it happens:  In the middle of a perfectly good sentence he throws in, as a sort of throwaway line or aside, some such observation as, ‘like that time the Venusians performed those experiments on me up on Telos Nine, before taking me back to the Bryant Park carousel and then flying home.  (They still call me, you know.)’

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/don%e2%80%99t_catch_his_eye_david_stockman%e2%80%99s_alien_abduction_partner/feed/ 25 Global tax dodgers exposed http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/largest_ever_leak_reveals_vast_tax_evasion_web/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/largest_ever_leak_reveals_vast_tax_evasion_web/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:15:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13261367 Updated, 12:15 p.m.: ICIJ pointed out that many of the world’s major banks – including UBS, Clariden and Deutsche Bank – have aggressively worked to provide their customers with secrecy-cloaked companies in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore hideaways:

Documents obtained by ICIJ show how two top Swiss banks, UBS and Clariden, worked with TrustNet to provide their customers with secrecy-shielded companies in the BVI and other offshore centers.

Clariden, owned by Credit Suisse, sought such high levels of confidentiality for some clients, the records show, that a TrustNet official described the bank’s request as “the Holy Grail” of offshore entities — a company so anonymous that police and regulators would be “met with a blank wall” if they tried to discover the owners’ identities.

Clariden declined to answer questions about its relationship with TrustNet.

“Because of Swiss banking secrecy laws, we are not allowed to provide any information about existing or supposed accountholders,” the bank said. “As a general rule, Credit Suisse and its related companies respect all the laws and regulations in the countries in which they are involved.”

A spokesperson for UBS said the bank applies “the highest international standards” to fight money laundering, and that TrustNet “is one of over 800 service providers globally which UBS clients choose to work with to provide for their wealth and succession planning needs. These service providers are also used by clients of other banks.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/largest_ever_leak_reveals_vast_tax_evasion_web/feed/ 15 Defeating useless rich people http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/defeating_useless_rich_people/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/defeating_useless_rich_people/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13249268 In two previous columns, I argued that left and right alike are confused by a failure to distinguish productive businesses that sell innovative goods and services from “rentier” interests — landlords, lenders, copyright holders and others — which use their natural or artificial monopoly power to extract excessive tolls, fees and other recurrent payments from the rest of society, including productive businesses. The fees or rents extracted by these interests constitute a kind of “private taxation” which — rather than public taxation — is the greatest threat facing America’s productive economy.

Today America’s powerful rentier interests, particularly those in the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) sector, are mobilizing campaign contributions and paid propaganda to promote what I called the Rentier Agenda: low taxes on those whose income is derived from capital gains; the privatization of public infrastructure and the deregulation of regulated private utilities, to generate windfall profits for investors in privatized or deregulated agencies; and a macroeconomic policy that serves the interests of creditors, at the expense of slow growth and mass unemployment, rather than productive businesses and workers. Similar observations have been made by many on the left and some mavericks on the right.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/defeating_useless_rich_people/feed/ 101 Must-see morning clip: The sequester is here http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/must_see_morning_clip_the_sequester_is_here/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/must_see_morning_clip_the_sequester_is_here/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:25:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13219126 "It will not happen," said President Barack Obama regarding the sequester during the presidential debates.

"Of course, it willn't," says Stewart. "Democrats and Republicans would have to be incredible incompetent not to be able to avoid this "self-designed and imposed mutual ball punch."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/must_see_morning_clip_the_sequester_is_here/feed/ 0 Must-see morning clip: A Doomsday scenario for China’s real estate market http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/must_see_morning_clip_a_doomsday_scenario_for_chinas_real_estate_market/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/must_see_morning_clip_a_doomsday_scenario_for_chinas_real_estate_market/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13218195 China's economy, has become the second largest in the world. On "60 Minutes," J Capital analyst Anne Stevenson-Yang talked with Lesley Stahl about one of the effects of rapid growth-- the housing bubble. "There's a range of possibilities," says Stevenson-Yang regarding the affect of the real estate market boom. "But the worst scenario is that everybody wakes up one day and finds that their money is gone and their apartments are worthless."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/must_see_morning_clip_a_doomsday_scenario_for_chinas_real_estate_market/feed/ 2 Women and the investment gap http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/women_and_the_investment_gap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/women_and_the_investment_gap/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212273 More than a third of American women are now their family breadwinner. Women with college degrees far outnumber their male counterparts in the workforce. And surveys reveal that around 90 percent of women identify themselves as the primary bill-payer and budget-maker for their household. But despite all of this, women continue to lag behind in investing and long-term financial planning.

So what gives?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/women_and_the_investment_gap/feed/ 1 How to save the USPS http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/how_to_save_the_postal_service_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/how_to_save_the_postal_service_partner/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13204966 How bad have things gotten for America’s national mail delivery system? The US Postal Service lost $1.3 billion last quarter, and this was regarded as good news. The venerable agency has been saddled with significant financial problems since a 2006 law forced it to pre-fund 75 years of employee retirement benefits, something no other public agency or private company has to do. This cash crunch (the Postal Service gets no money from the federal government and must survive on the revenues it generates) has led to austerity measures for the nation’s second-largest employer (right behind Wal-Mart). Mass layoffs last year were followed, earlier this month, by the announcement that Saturday deliveries of first-class mail will cease come August.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/how_to_save_the_postal_service_partner/feed/ 25 5 steps to cheating the middle class worker http://www.salon.com/2013/01/24/five_steps_to_cheating_the_middle_class_worker/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/24/five_steps_to_cheating_the_middle_class_worker/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:31:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13180987

It's so artfully done, and so diabolical, that one can picture secret seminars in subterranean Wall Street meeting rooms, guiding young business recruits in the proven process of taking an extra share of wealth from the middle class. Their presentation might unfold as follows:

AlterNet
1. Boost productivity while keeping worker wages flat.

The trend is unmistakable, and startling: productivity has continued unabated while wages have simply stopped growing. Improved technologies have reduced the need for workers while globalization has introduced the corporate world to cheap labor. In effect, the workers who built a productive America over a half-century stopped getting paid for their efforts.

Paul Krugman suggests that a "sharp increase in monopoly power" is another reason for the disparity. As John D. Rockefeller said, "Competition is a sin." That certainly is the rule of thumb in banking and agriculture and health insurance and cell phones. Yet despite the fact that low-wage jobs are increasingly defining the American labor market, apologists for our meager minimum wage claim an increase will worsen unemployment. So it remains at $7.25. A minimum wage linked to productivity would be $21.00 per hour.

2. Build up a financial industry that has no maximum wage.

This is where the money is. In 2007, before the financial crisis, a Harvard survey revealed that almost half of the school's seniors aspired to careers in finance. The industry's share of corporate profits grew from 16% in 1980 to an astonishing 45% in 2002.

And there's no limit to the earning potential. Hedge fund manager John Paulson conspired with Goldman Sachs in 2007 to bundle sure-to-fail subprime mortgages in attractive packages, with just enough time for Paulson to collect other people's money to bet against his personally designed financial instruments. He made $3.7 billion, enough to pay the salaries of 100,000 new teachers.

3. Keep accumulating wealth created by the financial industry.

Experienced schemers have undoubtedly observed that over the past 100 years the stock market has grown three times faster than the GDP. The richest quintile of Americans owns93% of such non-home wealth.

In the last 25 years, only the richest 5% of Americans have increased their share of non-home wealth, by the impressive rate of almost 20 percent.

In just one year, the richest 20 Americans earned more from their investments than the entireU.S. education budget.

4. Tax yourself as little as possible.

The easiest and least productive way to make money - holding on to investments - is also taxed at the lowest rate. In addition to the capital gains benefit, tax ploys like carried interest, performance-related pay, stock options, and deferred compensation allow hedge fund managers and CEOs to pay less than low-income Americans, and possibly evennothing at all.

The richest 400 taxpayers doubled their income in just seven years while cutting their tax rates nearly in half. U.S. corporations can match that, doubling their profits and cutting their taxes by more than half in under ten years. The 1.3 million individuals in the richest 1% cut their federal tax burden from 34% to 23% in just 25 years.

5. Lend out your excess money to people who can no longer afford a middle-class lifestyle.

As stated by Thom Hartmann, "The 'Takers' own vast wealth, and loan it out at interest to everybody from students to governments.." Overall, Americans are burdened with over $11 trillion in consumer debt, including mortgages, student loans, and credit card liabilities.

Wealth has largely disappeared for the middle- and lower-income classes. More than $7 trillion has been lost in the decline of home prices since 2006. Young college graduates have an average of $27,200 in student loans, and the 21-35 age group has lost 68% of its median net worth since 1984, leaving each of them about $4,000. Median net worth for single black and Hispanic women is a little over $100.

So we're hanging on by the frazzled thread of debt that indentures us to the rich and makes it harder and harder to fight back against the theft of our middle-class wealth. As we struggle to support ourselves, the super-rich remain on the take, driving us ever closer to the status of most wealth-unequal country in the world.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/24/five_steps_to_cheating_the_middle_class_worker/feed/ 14 Bernie Madoff doesn’t like what he sees in the markets http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/bernie_madoff_doesnt_like_what_he_sees_in_the_markets/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/bernie_madoff_doesnt_like_what_he_sees_in_the_markets/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 22:04:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155212 Bernie Madoff, the mastermind behind the largest investment fraud in American history, knows his share about skirting the financial markets. In a Christmas Eve letter to CNBC from his North Carolina prison cell, he detailed a few of his concerns about current conditions. Among other things, his letter demonstrates that a strong grasp of grammar is not a prerequisite to running a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme. Here are a few of his thoughts:

On "dark pools," large block trades between institutions that are conducted outside the market and thus invisible to the public until they are completed:

While I have always been an advocate of electronic trading due to the efficiency the lower costs they bring o the markets, I am nit (sic) a fan of the lack of transparency the DARK POOLS create.

It is important to examine why there has been this growing interest in the use of dark pools. Markets have always focused on the speed with which information becomes available. Of course this information can be composed of various types.

It could be corporate developments like earnings or mergers or it can be information regarding the placements of buy and sell orders and who is placing these orders. It is the latter information that has created the interest in the dark pools.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/bernie_madoff_doesnt_like_what_he_sees_in_the_markets/feed/ 3 Little known company buys New York Stock Exchange for $8 billion http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/little_known_company_buys_new_york_stock_exchange_for_8_billion/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/little_known_company_buys_new_york_stock_exchange_for_8_billion/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13151283 NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Stock Exchange is being sold to a little-known rival in Atlanta for about $8 billion, ending more than two centuries of independence for the iconic Big Board.

The buyer, IntercontinentalExchange, a 12-year-old exchange that deals in investing contracts known as futures, said Thursday that little would change for the trading floor in Manhattan's financial district.

The NYSE dates to 1792, when 24 brokers and merchants traded stocks under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. But its importance today is mostly symbolic. Most trading is done on computers that match thousands of orders a second.

"The cash equities business in America has effectively been obliterated," said Thomas Caldwell, chairman of Caldwell Securities in Toronto and a shareholder in the New York exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext.

He said that the jewel of the deal is not the New York exchange but Liffe, a futures exchange founded in London.

"The original New York Stock Exchange, it's got a brand name, it's got recognition, but as a business it's a very small part of this thing," Caldwell said.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/little_known_company_buys_new_york_stock_exchange_for_8_billion/feed/ 1 Treasury to sell GM stake within 15 months http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/treasury_to_sell_gm_stake_within_15_months/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/treasury_to_sell_gm_stake_within_15_months/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:39:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13149507 So much for socialism.

The Treasury department said it would be selling off its remaining 500.1 million shares of General Motors stock within the next 12-15 months, according to a press release.

GM is expected to buy 200 million shares of Treasury's stake for $27.50 each with the $5.5 billion deal expected to close by the end of this year. The department will sell its remaining 300.1 million shares through other channels subject to market conditions.

“The auto industry rescue helped save more than a million jobs during a severe economic crisis, but TARP was always meant to be a temporary, emergency program. The government should not be in the business of owning stakes in private companies for an indefinite period of time,” assistant secretary for financial stability Timothy G. Massad said in the release.

The department sold off the last of its stake in insurance giant AIG earlier this month. It says that it has "recovered more than 90 percent ($381 billion) of the $418 billion in funds disbursed for TARP."

Including the 200 million share sale to GM, Treasury it will have recovered $28.7 billion of the $49.5 billion that it invested in the company. The department cites independent estimates to say that its rescue of the U.S. auto industry saved 1 million jobs and has created 250,000 new jobs since June 2009.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/treasury_to_sell_gm_stake_within_15_months/feed/ 7 HSBC to pay $1.9 billion to settle money-laundering scandal http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/hsbc_to_pay_1_9bn_to_settle_money_laundering_scandal/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/hsbc_to_pay_1_9bn_to_settle_money_laundering_scandal/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:57:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13121258 LONDON (AP) -- HSBC avoided a legal battle that could further savage its reputation and undermine confidence in the global banking system by agreeing Tuesday to pay $1.9 billion to settle a U.S. money-laundering probe.

Europe's largest bank by market value will pay the biggest penalty ever imposed on a bank after facing accusations it transferred funds through the U.S. from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions.

It's the latest scandal to hit banks over recent years since the financial crisis started in 2008. Hours earlier, Standard Chartered PLC, another British bank, signed an agreement with New York regulators to settle a money laundering investigation involving Iran with a $340 million payment.

"These banks are operating in an environment where you can't afford to have uncertainty attached to your name, and they are dependent on confidence from their investors," said Sabine Bauer, director of financial institutions at Fitch Ratings. "And that makes them keen to get past such events very quickly and settle."

Despite the high price of the settlement, markets greeted the HSBC's swift agreement. HSBC Holdings PLC's share price in London was trading 0.2 percent higher at 642 pence. Standard Chartered's was flat at 1,498 pence.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/hsbc_to_pay_1_9bn_to_settle_money_laundering_scandal/feed/ 4 GOP blames Corzine for MF Global collapse http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/gop_blames_corzine_for_mf_global_collapse/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/gop_blames_corzine_for_mf_global_collapse/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:05:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13079674 WASHINGTON — Republicans on a House panel that investigated the collapse of the brokerage MF Global are pinning the blame on ex-CEO Jon Corzine, a former Democratic senator and governor.

The Republicans say the investigation has found that Corzine's decisions caused MF Global's bankruptcy in October 2011 and its loss of more than $1 billion in customer money.

They say Corzine turned the brokerage firm into an investment bank making risky trades. They also say Corzine ran the firm in an authoritarian manner and didn't allow anyone to challenge his decisions.

The firm failed after betting $6.3 billion on European debt that soured.

The House Financial Services oversight subcommittee is to release the report of its investigation Thursday.

A spokesman for Corzine did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Wednesday. Corzine told Congress last December that he never intended to misuse customer money or order anyone to do so.

Legal experts say it could be difficult for the government to build a persuasive case that he did know.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, the Texas Republican who heads the subcommittee, said in a news release that choices Corzine made as the firm's CEO "sealed MF Global's fate."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/gop_blames_corzine_for_mf_global_collapse/feed/ 6 One-third of Americans say they need to work into their 80s http://www.salon.com/2012/10/25/one_third_of_americans_say_they_need_to_work_into_their_80s/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/25/one_third_of_americans_say_they_need_to_work_into_their_80s/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:56:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13051619 Nearly one-third of Americans say they plan to work into their 80s since they can't afford to retire earlier, according to a Harris Institute survey.

As Bonnie Kavoussi noted in the Huffington Post, "Retirement is becoming an unaffordable luxury for a growing number of middle-class Americans." She attributes the increasing inability to retire at 65 and live decently to the middle-class squeeze of recent decades -- a mixture of  inflation, productivity increases and stagnating wages:

The U.S.' real median household income, at just $50,054, is roughly at the same level where it was in 1989. While worker productivity has risen 69 percent since 1979, median hourly compensation rose just 6.5 percent during the same time period, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/25/one_third_of_americans_say_they_need_to_work_into_their_80s/feed/ 12 Thousands of Wall Street traders follow astrology http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/thousands_of_wall_street_traders_follow_astrology/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/thousands_of_wall_street_traders_follow_astrology/#comments Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13020417 For those already skeptical of Wall Street trading practices, this news will bring little solace -- unless you're into astrology, that is.

According to MarketPlace, reports Wall Street & Technology, "at least 300 traders are currently paying $237 each year to subscribe to financial astrologer Karen Starich’s newsletter, while a couple thousand more subscribe to Arch Crawford’s astrology-based financial forecasts."

On balance, of all the vagaries to factor into market moving decisions, we'll opt for Saturn squaring on Neptune compared to, say, greed-driven culture of risk any day.

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