The massive regulatory revision touches almost every aspect of the financial industry. In addition to rules aimed at trimming risk-taking among banks, the package prominently includes several new protections for consumers.
One of the key questions facing Congress as it labors to reconcile the House and Senate bills is this: Three years after the financial crisis began, how much risk should America's banks be allowed to take? Not surprisingly, opinions differ greatly.
The European Union is considering measures that would give regulators emergency powers to "prohibit or restrict" naked credit-default swaps -- insurance on bonds not owned by the CDS purchaser -- in reaction to the region's current debt crisis.
One of the biggest risks to the world's financial health is the $1.2 quadrillion derivatives market. It's complex, it's unregulated, and it ought to be of concern to world leaders that its notional value is 20 times the size of the world economy.
Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting will be held on May 1. Here are 10 questions attendees should ask Warren Buffett -- ranging from the financial reform bill to his Goldman deal and who the famed investor favors to succeed him at Berkshire.
Rumblings about financial reform are rising. But some traders say they like what they've heard so far. Placing derivatives on exchanges may present a large new financial opportunity for the exchanges. "It's a $600 billion vehicle," says Alan Valdes of DME Securities.
The most striking portrait to emerge from the Goldman Sachs fraud charges may be that of the sheer uselessness of much of Wall Street's activities in recent years. Exhibit A: Synthetic CDOs and their ilk. And no less a capitalist than George Soros is loudly sounding the alarm.
Not surprisingly, some big banks aren't happy with the president calling for their support of his financial reform. One lobbyist complains that Obama "demagogued the industry" in his quest for new regulations. Some voices were more conciliatory.
The giant bank is defending itself based on four claims it's making to counter the SEC's charges. Our legal reporter thinks the SEC has a stronger -- but not a slam-dunk -- case on the first three points. The fourth is more up in the air. All of them involve subtle interpretations of what happened and why.
Just as some investors were set to coast once again, the Goldman Sachs fraud charges are a stark reminder that the consequences of a financial crisis that caused soaring unemployment and ravaged retirement savings are hardly a thing of the past.
One of the biggest battles in financial reform is whether derivative trades will move out of the shadows into a public exchange. Derivatives played a major role in the financial meltdown, but because private trades are highly profitable, big banks and their GOP allies are fighting hard against reformers' push for new regulations.
Bet you thought the financial world had learned a bit of prudence from the recent meltdown. But no. Citigroup has a clever new derivative for the markets, and this latest attempt at selling "end-of-the-world insurance" could be just as dangerous to the system as credit default swaps were.
