February 2009

There are a number of curious, and fraudulent claims, in what the Securities and Exchange Commission calls a "massive" securities fraud allegedly perpetrated by Robert Allen Stanford and three of his companies, providing an object lesson that investors should take to heart. The SEC accuses Stanford and his three companies of orchestrating a fraudulent, multi-billion dollar investment scheme ... read more

As the dramatic highs of the headlines about the $787 bn stimulus plan abate, as politicians addicted to glaring hot klieg lights hit the airwaves for the umpteenth time to argue their votes, a form of post dramatic press disorder has set in down in DC. Meanwhile, the sickly anemic banking system is still lurching around in a hospital gown and a legislative pork wagon has once again mowed ... read more

In covering the hearing of the nine bank chief executives on Capitol Hill, it didn't take long for me to see that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf was having a hard time of it, valiant effort though he did make to defend his bank's lending practices. Because to look inside Wells Fargo, you will find the worst of the mortgage lenders housed in this bank, Wachovia, which Wells Fargo bought last fall ... read more

The US Treasury and the Federal Reserve have just taken out the bazookas in their "full arsenal approach" to fixing the credit crisis. What's clearly getting blown out the backdoor are taxpayers' wallets and common sense. The Treasury and the Fed have now expanded the Fed's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) to "support the purchase of loans by providing the financing to ... read more

Third in the Crackdown on Wall Street series What exactly went on behind the scenes in Wall Street's subprime bond factory? A behind the scenes, inside look at three asset-backed bond deals on Wall Street, deals that eventually imploded, shows exactly the danger investors were put in. Law enforcement officials now say arrests on Wall Street will be made not just of those who hawked ... read more