"Of the top 100 Swiss companies, 49 give shareholders a consulting vote on the pay of executives. A few other countries, including the United States and Germany, have introduced advisory "say on pay" votes in response to the anger over inequality and corporate excess that drove the Occupy Wall Street movement. Britain is also planning to implement rules in late 2013 that will give shareholders a binding vote on pay and "exit payments" at least every three years.
Minder's initiative goes further, forcing all listed companies to have binding votes on compensation for company managers and directors, and ban golden handshakes and parachutes. It would also ban bonus payments to managers if their companies are taken over, and impose severe penalties — including possible jail sentences and fines — for breaches of these new rules."
posted by vidur
on Jan 21, 2013 -
32 comments
"We decided to go on
an adventure through the financial statements of one bank [Wells Fargo], to explore exactly what they do and do not show, and to gauge whether it is possible to make informed judgments about the risks the bank may be carrying. We chose a bank that is thought to be a conservative financial institution, and an exemplar of what a large modern bank should be."
posted by vidur
on Jan 14, 2013 -
14 comments
Financial Markets, Politics and the New Reality:
"Louis M. Bacon is the head of Moore Capital Management, one of the largest and most influential hedge funds in the world. Last week, he announced that he was returning one quarter of his largest fund, about $2 billion, to his investors, [saying] it is impossible to make money when there is heavy political involvement, because political involvement introduces unpredictability in the market… Adam Smith and David Ricardo, who modern investors so admire, [never] used the term "economics" by itself, but only in conjunction with politics; they called it political economy… The investors' problem is that they mistake the period between 1991 and 2008 as the norm and keep waiting for it to return."
posted by the mad poster!
on Aug 9, 2012 -
36 comments
In his Oscar acceptance speech, documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson reminded viewers worldwide that "not a single financial executive has gone to jail" for the fraud that created the 2008 financial meltdown. His film Inside Job (on Netflix
DVD) explains, among other things, that the crisis was avoidable. See also the
Inside Job trailer and a subsequent
followup video in which Ferguson says that many sources "mysteriously backed out" before being filmed. He also
spoke at MIT in January.
posted by mark7570
on Mar 2, 2011 -
55 comments
Today, while
testifying for only the second time on Capitol Hill since the financial crisis began, [former Fed chairman] Alan Greenspan said the Fed closely monitored the subprime market [...]
"I was right 70% of the time, but I was wrong 30% of the time, and there were an awful lot of mistakes in 21 years...". But
Greenspan's defense of his record today
rang hollow to many
seasoned observers, if not
downright deceitful.
posted by HP LaserJet P10006
on Apr 7, 2010 -
44 comments
Matt Taibbifilter:
Among other things, the GAO report noted that the entire OTS had only one insurance specialist on staff — and this despite the fact that it was the primary regulator for the world's largest insurer! This week's MeFi stories have generally failed to explain the reasoning that caused the recession, even though
Jon Stewart was basically on the mark. Now,
Rolling Stone's only reporter lays it all out
The Big Takeover, a typical combination of zealous snark and the overlooked, damning facts needed to clear up a ridiculously complicated story.
posted by shii
on Mar 20, 2009 -
111 comments
Protests have rocked Reykjavík since Tuesday:
Envious of Obama, Icelanders hurl yogurt and stage riots for new leaders,
Global financial crisis overwhelms tiny Iceland,
Flickr set of pictures of Tuesday's protest in front of parliament (complete with
pepper spray on camera lens),
AFP photos from Tuesday's protest, video from protests
1,
2,
3 &
4,
Icelandic protesters pelt PM's car (includes short video).
New age of rebellion and riot stalks Europe,
The Icelandic "Facebook Revolution", Iceland is Burning
part 1 &
part 2 and
Reuters factbox on Iceland and its economic crisis.
posted by Kattullus
on Jan 22, 2009 -
45 comments
Synthetic CDO's are complex little known financial instruments (insurance contracts) that are on the brink of triggering "the most colossal rights issue in the history of the world, all at once .. mandatory." If, out of a list of several hundred major companies,
any nine go bankrupt, the CDO's are in default, which would mean a mass transfer of cash (real money) from unsuspecting investors around the world goes into the banking system. How much? Nobody knows, but it’s many trillions. Banks will be flush with cash, perhaps ending the credit crisis, while many investors (individuals, charities, municipalities) will be wiped out. Alternatively, the triggering of default on the trillions of synthetic CDOs could be a disaster that tips the world from recession into depression. Nobody knows, but it won’t be a small event. Thus far
the count is six: three Icelandic banks, Countrywide, Lehman and Bear Stearns.
posted by stbalbach
on Dec 1, 2008 -
49 comments
