The November 2 elections in the U.S. brought the greatest change in national politics since the 1940s, according to Peter Hart, a national pollster often affiliated with the Democratic Party. From coast to coast, Democratic states went Republican in elections for Congressional seats and governors. “A category 5 hurricane hit the Democrats.” Voters think the [...]

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A recent publication from SunGard and senior risk practitioners from International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE) about complexity and financial risk is interesting, although they fail to grapple with some of the key aspects. They defend complexity, as you might expect, with no effort to demonstrate that it provides value beyond the financial services industry. [...]

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Could American consumers come out of this crisis with a little help from Washington? The Obama administration is pushing a new consumer protection agency to regulate the bankers, and the bankers are going to do their best to kill it. This agency would focus solely on the consumer and the proposed legislation would give it [...]

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“… in connection specifically with the financial crisis, the main point is about what appropriate patience might look like where various financial and commercial enterprises are concerned. The loss of a sense of appropriate time is a major cultural development, which necessarily changes how we think about trust and relationship. Trust is learned gradually, rather [...]

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Must admit that Andy Kessler’s column in the Wall Street Journal on Citi caught me by surprise … I was really impressed with his book on hedge funds, Running Money – so why was I surprised by his insight into Citi in a recent Wall Street Journal piece, where he notes that  Sandy Weill hit [...]

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