The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking Standard & Poor’s to provide the names of employees who were aware of the credit agency’s impending downgrade of U.S. government debt ahead of its public announcement last Friday. (more)
(Reuters) – Alarmed by widening accounting debacles at U.S.-listed Chinese companies, American regulators are scrambling to stem the damage from gaps in laws adopted to protect investors after the Enron scandal a decade ago. (more)
I’m a big fan of giving the benefit of the doubt to issues I don’t agree with. My thinking is always that if there’s a ban, a loophole or a hurdle, it was placed there not to piss anybody off, but because of some honest, albeit sometimes wrong-headed, motivation to do the right thing. When I discover, however, that the driving force is malevolent, illegal, or just plain immoral, all bets are off. (more)
Before a jury found Manuel Asensio had illegally defamed a company whose demise he would profit from, and before securities regulators barred him from employment in the banking industry for the rest of his life, he used to take down companies with savage reports under the banner of his investment bank, Asensio & Company. (more)
DENVER — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has counseled or disciplined 24 employees who accessed pornographic sites on government computers between 2005 and 2010 as the U.S. financial system teetered and almost collapsed. (more)
Ever heard of CO2 Tech? It turns out that the London-based company, which advertised products and services to combat global warming, is a fraud. (more)
This is “Regulation Week” on Capitol Hill. A presidential address and five congressional hearings have put the regulatory state, all 563 agencies, front and center. Politicians are beginning to understand that the EPA, the FCC and other regulatory bodies have a profound impact on job creation and economic freedom. (more)
Senior executives at JPMorgan Chase expressed serious doubts about the legitimacy of Bernard L. Madoff’s investment business more than 18 months before his Ponzi scheme collapsed but continued to do business with him, according to internal bank documents made public in a lawsuit on Thursday. (more)
To boost confidence among entrepreneurs and investors, America’s political leaders need to send positive, pro-business signals. Members of Congress and President Obama have talked a good game of supporting small business, but the policies of the past two years have been downright hostile. Indeed, it’s time for a major shift in direction. (more)
Christine O’Donnell denied charges that she had used campaign funds for personal use on Thursday, calling the accusations “thug tactics,” and casting doubt on the political motivations of her accusers. (more)
1.) Feds may have to bail out Detroit for a second time — If the federal government decides, in its finite wisdom, that poorly run states and municipalities do not deserve to sink or swim based on the electoral acumen of their residents (or lack thereof), and chooses instead to “bail out” bankrupt members of the American federation, there will be some irony in the decision. In Detroit, two of the city’s public pensions are under investigation for “risky investing” that cost the two funds $480 million in three years. According to the Detroit Free Press, “many of the investments involved secretive middlemen, who pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars, or were vetted by controversial investment adviser Adrian Anderson and his firm, North Point Advisors.” Anderson is currently under investigation by the SEC, but has not been charged. In the meantime, “the pensions are paying the legal bills of Anderson and a second adviser who scrutinized failed real estate deals.” Have you heard the one about the burglar who fell through the woman’s skylight and then demanded that she pay for his medical bills? This is sort of like that. (more)
Even the Washington Post’s Chris Cilizza noticed. He designated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as having “the worst week in Washington,” a week ago. This is something of a comedown among liberals, who have been fawning over Hillary. Cilizza noted it was an unusual slip. “She has traveled the world, winning kudos everywhere she goes for her grace and, um, diplomacy.” (more)
One of the biggest failures of climate science is the fact that the data sets created to justify global warming are not independently reviewed or subject to standardized quality control procedures, such as ISO 9000. The very people who write scientific papers on global warming, lobby Congress to take action, and even get arrested protesting about climate, such as NASA’s Dr. James Hansen, are the same ones who are the keepers of the world’s most-cited climate data. (more)
Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay $137 million to settle investigations of its involvement in a conspiracy to rig bids on 88 municipal bond contracts, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department said. (more)
In an effort to bring attention to the problem of investment fraud, federal authorities on Monday highlighted hundreds of cases where defendants accused of financial wrongdoing had been arrested, charged criminally or sentenced to lengthy prison terms. (more)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Alabama-Auburn has always been one of the most storied rivalries in college football, in a class with Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma and Florida-Georgia as the best in the country. (more)
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal authorities are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. (more)
AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn quarterback Cam Newton has been stalked by news reports that his father shopped him to Mississippi State, asking for money for his son to play football. The rumors seemed to be everywhere over the past two weeks, except inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. (more)
This Cameron Newton story has legs, lots and lots of legs — and it’s sprouting more every day. With any luck, it will run off and lead everyone on a merry chase that ends badly. (more)
The 10 things we’re buzzing about as the Big East continues to court Villanova: (more)
