CDOs

The news across the financial world is good for unions, which will find organizing a bit easier; adequate for Greece, which will find getting bailed out a bit easier, and bitter for JPMorgan which had to accept a $153.6 million SEC fine for misleading investors about a mortgage securities transaction.

The pint-size Manhattan bank's market cap of $2 billion is dwarfed by JPMorgan's $161.5 billion and BofA's $126.4 billion. Still, Signature has done far better for investors this year. By steering clear of risky derivatives and sticking with basic banking, Signature is thriving.

Regulators are in talks with several major banks to settle a number of investigations of their sales of mortgage-bonds, The Wall Street Journal reported. The probe focused on the sale of pools of mortgages and other loans as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, to investors, The Wall Street...

Investors have hit Goldman Sachs with a class-action lawsuit for allegedly failing to disclose that it would benefit if its debt products lost value. The investment bank -- and several others -- say more lawsuits are likely on the way.

At the Financial Services Inquiry Commission hearing, former Wall Street derivatives executive Steven Kohlhagen claimed derivatives generally played "no role" in causing the financial crisis. This puzzling argument doesn't pass the straight-face test.

Attention, all owners of Triaxx collateralized debt obligations and clients of New York based investment adviser Thomas Priore: The Securities and Exchange Commission has just sued Priore and his three affliated companies for fraud for their management of the Triaxx CDOs.

Lawyers have already exploited Facebook to help win in divorce cases, investigate potential jurors, and market themselves. Now, a California judge has ruled on when parties can subpoena Facebook data in a civil suit, and yes, your privacy settings are the key factor.

Ratings agencies defending against lawsuits claiming that they issued bogus AAA ratings on junk bonds have asserted a First Amendment defense: Their opinions are protected speech. So far, they're not winning the argument.

It's only when clients ask for financial advice that banks owe a fiduciary duty to them -- and these activities contribute just a tiny portion of banks' revenue.

MBIA has sued Merrill Lynch because the CDOs on which Merrill bought insurance from MBIA were AAA-rated junk. MBIA says Merrill knew the CDOs didn't deserve the top rating at the time it insured them. If this case succeeds, big banks may find dud ratings very expensive.