White Promises ‘Unrelenting’ Enforcement at SEC
WASHINGTON — Mary Jo White vowed Tuesday to make “bold and unrelenting” enforcement of Wall Street a high priority if she is confirmed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. White, a former federal prosecutor, says investors need to know the playing field is level and that wrongdoers will be “aggressively and successfully” pursued. “Strong enforcement is necessary for investor confidence and is essential to the integrity of our financial markets,” said White, 65, in prepared remarks to the Senate Banking Committee, which is considering her nomination. White is expected to face tough questions from senators about her decade of legal work representing some of the nation’s largest banks and corporations. But ultimately, she is expected to win confirmation from the panel and the full Senate. She would replace Elisse Walter, who has been interim SEC chairman since Mary Schapiro resigned in December, and become the first former prosecutor to lead the top regulator ...
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Mergers and Acquisitions Boom! Is This a Good Sign for the Economy?
Wall Street dealmakers are off to a busy start to 2013, as some of corporate America’s most recognizable names have become involved in multi-billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions. Just yesterday, American Airlines and US Airways announced they would be merging in an $11 billion deal, while private equity firm 3G and Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway announced a $28 billion joint acquisition of food conglomerate H.G. Heinz. And these two deals follow hard upon $24.4 billion leveraged buyout of Dell by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and the firm’s founder, Michael Dell. Indeed, according to data from Deallogic, U.S. companies have spent $219 billion on mergers and acquisitions so far in 2013, a sharp increase from 2012, when firms spent just $85 billion during the same period. And U.S. firms are on pace to have the biggest year in M&A activity since 2000. While all this activity will be surely benefit shareholders of acquired firms — as well as lots of Wall ...
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U.S. Sues S&P over Pre-Crisis Mortgage Ratings
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. government is accusing the debt rating agency Standard & Poor’s of fraud for giving high ratings to risky mortgage bonds that helped bring about the financial crisis. The government said in a civil complaint filed late Monday that S&P misled investors by stating that its ratings were objective and “uninfluenced by any conflicts of interest.” It said S&P’s desire to make money and gain market share caused S&P to ignore the risks posed by the investments between September 2004 and October 2007. (MORE: Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Itself) The charges mark the first enforcement action the government has taken against a major rating agency involving the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. According to the government filing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the alleged fraud made it possible to sell the investments to banks. The government charged S&P under a law aimed at making sure banks invest safely. S&P, a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill ...
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Buying 'Political Intelligence' Can Pay Off Big for Wall Street
Marwood Group provides investors with insights on likely federal government actions; one call—saying an Amylin Pharmaceuticals diabetes drug faced headwinds at the FDA—has drawn the SEC's attention.
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The People’s Bailout: Occupy Wall Street Wants to Forgive Your Debt
During the height of the financial crisis, the federal government pulled out all the stops to ensure the survival of the nation’s largest financial institutions. Along the way, shareholders and creditors of big Wall Street firms were bailed out as well, saved from losses they deserved for making poor investment decisions. Since that time, much of America has been clamoring for the same attention to be paid to the over-indebted citizens of the country as well. While total household debt has come down since the recession, the poor economy has left many Americans in a position where they are unable to repay their loans. So an offshoot group of Occupy Wall Street called Strike Debt has begun raising money to buy defaulted and distressed debt from brokers, so that they can forgive the loans outright. Because this debt has been in default for so long, it can be bought for very cheap, sometimes for as little as a few pennies on the dollar. According to a statement, the group has already “spent ...
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