May 2008

Did Circuit City have to contend with an undisclosed probe from the Securities & Exchange Commission? Disclosure Insight, run by John Gavin, is an independent research firm that prepares in-depth risk reports on public companies. This research includes information it acquires under the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] filings it sends to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Disclosure ... read more

The Securities & Exchange Commission now says it will probe into the operations of the three top US credit rating agencies, in the wake of their questionable top-notch ratings of poor subprime mortgage bonds and a report about computer errors leading to erroneous triple-A ratings of European debt securities at Moody's Investors Service. But this story is bigger than the subprime bond ratings ... read more

The US House of Representatives recently passed legislation that would let the government sue members of OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and other foreign states for colluding to restrict oil production in order to manipulate the price of oil. A compelling idea for anyone experiencing sticker shock at the pump, especially given the widespread fear that we may see $5 ... read more

Yahoo! has postponed its shareholder meeting, even though it announced just two weeks ago the meeting would be held July 3. It now says the meeting will be held "around the end of July," according to an SEC filing Thursday. But the Internet giant has more than a nasty proxy fight on its hands with billionaire corporate raider, and new Yahoo! shareholder Carl Icahn, who filed an opposing slate ... read more

The world's leading banks are demanding stock market and accounting regulators relax controversial accounting rules in order to stop the "downward spiral" of huge writedowns during the credit and housing crisis, $335b and counting. These massive writedowns have led to emergency fundraisings of $260b and garage-sales of assets. The proposals were sent to US and European central banks, ... read more