Wall Street
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Heavy-Handed Politics Could Boost Bank Reform, Stock Prices and the Economy
Defenders of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) say the civil fraud charges the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has levied against the investment-banking giant are without foundation, and are politically timed to push President Barack Obama's bank-reform agenda.
In his Cooper Union speech to Wall Street and the American public yesterday (Thursday), President Obama took pointed aim at opponents of his bank-reform agenda by stating: "Unless your products depend on bilking people, there's little to fear from these reforms."
Whether or not the timing of the Goldman Sachs fraud case was politically motivated, or whether or not President Obama was referring to Goldman with his "bilking" comment, one thing is for sure: The president and his administration are taking the reform fight to the Street.
At stake in this fight is the future of our capital markets, the health of the U.S. economy and the direction of the U.S. stock market.
To see how the Obama bank-reform push could perpetuate the bull market, please read on...
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Money Morning Mailbag: What's More Broken – Washington or Wall Street?
While policymakers will have taken up the debate over financial reform in the halls of Congress, Money Morning readers have been posting comments to our Money Morning Facebook page and writing in to our e-mail mailbag at mailbag@moneymappress.com with their thoughts on the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) case and the relationship between Washington and Wall Street.
A week after the Securities and Exchange Commission brought fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, President Barack Obama yesterday (Thursday) blamed the financial meltdown on both Washington and Wall Street in a speech in New York and urged Wall Street giants to stop fighting reform.
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SEC Charges Goldman Sachs With Fraud, Sending Its Stock, Reputation Tumbling
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday charged Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) with securities fraud in a civil suit, claiming the financial giant defrauded investors with a mortgage-related investment that was intended to fail.
The SEC accused Goldman Sachs of failing to disclose vital information on a synthetic collateralized debt obligation (CDO) that was peddled to clients while the bank bet against its success, knowing the bank was likely to come out the winner. The SEC says Goldman used hedge fund Paulson & Co. to pick particularly risky securities for the product with a higher chance of collapsing.
The whole financial sector slid after the SEC's announcement. Goldman's stock fell over 12% Friday to close at $160.70 a share.
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Financial Reform: Three Ways to Fix Wall Street
The financial-reform bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-CT, seems likely to pass both houses without all that much alteration.
And that should immediately raise our suspicions. After all, the U.S. financial-services business has a very effective lobby, so if there isn't huge opposition to the legislation, it probably won't achieve all that much.
It won't fix Wall Street.
But there's another issue here: It's also not clear to me that we know just what we want the financial-reform initiative to achieve. By that, I mean: What banking-sector reforms would we implement in an ideal world, to reduce the danger from the sector while preserving the essentials of a free market?
To see Martin Hutchinson's blueprint for fixing Wall Street, please read on... -
Know When to Fold'em: When Is the Right Time to Sell a Stock?
There's one word in every stock market movie ever made that's never uttered in a normal tone of voice. Never merely said, but rather shouted.
That word is SELL!
Indeed, no other word in the financial lexicon is so often associated with market uncertainty, investor fear, or in the worst case, outright panic . Truthfully, I can't recall a single film in which the protagonist calmly decides to sell based on reasoned analysis.
Of course, that's the case in movies because it makes for stronger plots - ones propelled by high drama and intense emotions. But all too often, it's much the same in real life.
And it shouldn't be.
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The Bull Market is Intact and On the Move
Bears have been scratching for a vulnerable spot in the bulls' narrative in the past few weeks, but have been coming up empty, as they logged a blistering March.
Sellers tried to sink the market back in February as the long-simmering Greek debt fiasco roared into the headlines, but that didn't work out so hot for them. And early last week they tried again by both highlighting new reports of discord between the European Monetary Union authorities and Greece, and by flogging the news of a Fitch Ratings Inc. downgrade of Portuguese debt.
At some point, portfolio managers outside of Europe may decide that they care about these matters but for now there has been what you might call a Gallic shrug. Tant pis, as the French say.
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New Banking Regulations … Same Old Story
U.S. banks, drunk with greed, drove the nation's economy to the brink of financial Armageddon.
To save U.S. banks from losing their license to dangle the nation's economy over a cliff, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the country's elected elite threw them a bailout party and gifted them with the accounting- world's version of "Transformers. "
Unfortunately, new banking regulations aimed at solving these problems are little more than the same old song and dance that forced the bailout - and stuck U.S. taxpayers with a multi-trillion-dollar tab.
To see how reformers have failed to fix the banking system, please read on...
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The Dividend Stock Recovery: Get Ready for a High-Yield Bonanza
It's been a tough time for income investors lately.
Ten-year Treasuries pay less than 4%. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index yields just over 2%. Money market fund returns are microscopic, paying an average of just 0.05%. (At that rate, it will take your money one thousand years to double.)
What should you do?
Take a look not at the stock market, but inside it. The S&P 500 may yield 2.1%, but many individual stocks are yielding far more. In addition, yields are about to arch higher.
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Bulls Vs. Bears: Who's Winning Wall Street's Biggest Battle?
Two big economic reports dampened the mood on Wall Street in the past week: The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index.
But despite what the bears would have you believe, several strong companies have shrugged such data aside and broken through to new highs. In fact, long-term, we continue to see evidence that a robust business-led recovery is underway.
To find out what companies are leading a new bull market click here...
