Lehman's Demise and Repo 105: No Accounting for Deception - Knowledge@Wharton

A great article from Knowledge@Wharton:Lehman's Demise and Repo 105: No Accounting for Deception - Knowledge@Wharton: "Among the report's most disturbing revelations, according to Wharton finance professor Richard J. Herring, is the picture of Lehman's accountants at Ernst & Young. 'Their main role was to help the firm misrepresent its actual position to the public,' Herring says, noting that

Think You Can Exceed The Speed Limit By 5 To 10 MPH? Maybe Not - The Two-Way - Breaking News, Analysis Blog : NPR - StumbleUpon

Think You Can Exceed The Speed Limit By 5 To 10 MPH? Maybe Not - The Two-Way - Breaking News, Analysis Blog : NPR - StumbleUpon: "...to make up for lost revenue because a weak economy has cut into tax collections, state and local governments are encouraging officers to be less forgiving.It's not an unusual response to economic problems. And among the evidence to back up that claim is a 2009 paper

Social Security Payout to Exceed Revenue This Year - NYTimes.com

Social Security Payout to Exceed Revenue This Year - NYTimes.com: "Analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point — the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances."

Money Brawl: Private Equity Fights Big Investors - Planet Money Blog : NPR

Money Brawl: Private Equity Fights Big Investors - Planet Money Blog : NPR: "...WSJ reports, at least three big private equity shops have hired lawyers to see whether the pension funds are violating antitrust laws by banding together.Sure, antitrust laws usually apply to sellers conspiring to fix prices or create monopolies. But apparently, customers (in this case, the private equity firms'

The futility of active management - Investment News

The futility of active management - Investment News: "From 1994 through 2008, the average large-cap mutual fund that was in existence for the full 15-year period (some 400 funds) posted an annualized return of 5.61%, compared with 6.46% for the S&P 500.And because some people claim that active managers are more valuable under the circumstances of a bear market than when the markets are trending

The Lehman Whistleblower’s Letter - Deal Journal - WSJ

The Lehman Whistleblower’s Letter - Deal Journal - WSJ: "In May 2008, former Lehman Senior Vice President Matthew Lee wrote a letter to senior management warning that the New York securities firm may have been masking the true risks on its balance sheet. A month later, he had been ousted.His warning was revealed for the first time in a report by a U.S. bankruptcy-court examiner and showed that

Environmentally Friendly Homes Attract Wariness From Banks Making Mortgage Loans - WSJ.com

Environmentally Friendly Homes Attract Wariness From Banks Making Mortgage Loans - WSJ.com:In class we talk about specialized vs generalized assets. Today's case in point: "odd homes"."Getting financing for unusual homes has never been easy. Near Granby, Colo., Richard Messer opted not to look for a conventional mortgage because there was nothing conventional about what's inside his walls: 50

Banks Win Ban on Flyonthewall Instant News of Reports (Update4) - Bloomberg.com

Banks Win Ban on Flyonthewall Instant News of Reports (Update4) - Bloomberg.com: "March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Theflyonthewall.com, an online financial news service, was barred from issuing immediate online reports about stock upgrades and downgrades of Barclays Plc, Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley."Interesting case....imagine if the same happens with Blogs and twitter.

William Sharpe launches winning IPO, Financial Engines - USATODAY.com

William Sharpe launches winning IPO, Financial Engines - USATODAY.com"Sharpe, an academic instrumental in creating the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) used by professional investors and for which he won the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, is co-founder of Financial Engines (FNGN), a company that Tuesday launched a successful initial public offering. Financial Engines, a

Moody's warns nations to cut spending or risk AAA ratings - washingtonpost.com

Moody's warns nations to cut spending or risk AAA ratings - washingtonpost.com: "...Moody's said that debt levels in the four large credit-worthy economies had reached the point at which they are at risk of being downgraded..."growth alone will not resolve an increasingly complicated debt equation. Preserving debt affordability at levels consistent with AAA ratings will invariably require fiscal

The Evolution Of ETFs

The Evolution Of ETFs: "...one of the more recent financial inventions has left an indelible impact on the market and created a world of opportunity for retail investors at the same times. We're talking about the advent and the evolution of the exchange-traded fund (ETF).... Most industry followers estimate the number of ETFs available to U.S. investors will reach 1,000 sometime in 2010. A Real

Visit to Fed Shows Where Any Reform Should Start - WSJ.com

Visit to Fed Shows Where Any Reform Should Start - WSJ.com: "And yet for all their dedication, the examiners appeared to be working with a very narrow mandate.As Mr. Corkery pointed out, examiners are 'not auditors.' Instead they serve more as government-paid consultants, helping banks identify portfolio risks and correct them. Even after the greatest banking crisis in generations, Mr. Corkery

Lehman Brothers Hid Borrowing, Examiner Says - NYTimes.com

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeLehman Brothers Hid Borrowing, Examiner Says - NYTimes.com: "According to the report, Lehman used what amounted to financial engineering to temporarily shuffle $50 billion of troubled assets off its books in the months before its collapse in September 2008 to conceal its dependence on leverage, or borrowed money. Senior Lehman executives, as well as the bank’s

SSRN-Choices About Competition: Differences by Gender and Hormonal Fluctuations, and the Role of Relative Performance Feedback by David Wozniak, William Harbaugh, Ulrich Mayr

There is a fairly large disagreement on the degree of differences in investments and other financial decisions based on risk. Many of the earlier studies showing females are more risk averse and less competitive are being brought into question when newer studies control for income, or life expectancy, etc. Here is a similar one that does so by adding a feedback loop that helps to reduce

Entrepreneurship by music

Ok, so Entrepreneurship is not strictly speaking finance. It is close enough to include this since the song is so good (yeah I think that is a blogging rule somewhere).HT to Phil of Adventure Capitalist

Real World Evidence for the Laffer Curve from the Government of Washington, DC | Cato @ Liberty

From the Cato Institute: Real World Evidence for the Laffer Curve from the Government of Washington, DC | Cato @ Liberty: "...the Laffer Curve simply reveals that higher tax rates will lead to less taxable income (or that lower tax rates will lead to more taxable income) and that it is an empirical matter to figure out the degree to which the change in tax revenue resulting from the shift in the

AIG to sell Alico unit to MetLife for $15.5 billion - Mar. 8, 2010

AIG to sell Alico unit to MetLife for $15.5 billion - Mar. 8, 2010: "AIG agreed Monday to sell its American Life Insurance Co. unit to MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion in cash and stock, in beleaguered AIG's second sale of an international unit in a week.AIG said it will sell the unit, known as Alico, for $6.8 billion in cash and the remainder in MetLife equity."and later:""This sale is an

Joseph Stiglitz on Charlie Rose

Definitely worth watching. (how is it that TV has so many bad shows when stuff like this is on?)

SEC Sues Psychic For Securities Fraud - Planet Money Blog : NPR

SEC Sues Psychic For Securities Fraud - Planet Money Blog : NPR: "Here are some of the key accusations in the SEC's lawsuit: Morton claimed that he would use his psychic expertise to provide investment guidance to his investing team, and falsely touted his historical success in psychically predicting the various rises and falls of the market"

Simoleon Sense » Blog Archive » Defining & Identifying A Cognitive Bias

Simoleon Sense » Blog Archive » Defining & Identifying A Cognitive Bias:Good stuff! "1. Judgment lacks correspondence with a criterion.2. Judgment lacks correspondence with judgments of others.3. Judgment relies on bad information.4. Judgment fails to use good information. "Read the rest of it here.

James Porterfield, GSB finance professor and market expert, dead at 89

James Porterfield, GSB finance professor and market expert, dead at 89: "Porterfield was the James Irvin Miller Professor of Finance, Emeritus, at the time of his death.He was the author of books and articles on financial management including Investment Decisions and Capital Costs and Case Problems in Finance....'The essence of graduate education in business should lie not in the transmission of