While the title of the book makes you think “teen angst” and the book’s choice of cover image that makes you think “Jack the Ripper”, you’d be surprised to learn that this is a book about the Securities Exchange Commission (yes, that’s right – the not-so-dreaded SEC). The book follows the mildly eccentric tale of the mildly eccentric Harry Markopolos, briefly and intermittently describing his journey through life, but getting quickly into the meat of how he set his sights on Bernie Madoff.
Just reading Oyama’s table of contents we get a clear run-down of the key issues in the current financial crisis, from its seeds (the pre-crisis summer of 2007, 2007, and the full-fledged crisis in mid-late 2008), an overview of its elements, reactions by governments and regulators, issues that set this crisis apart from others, reform of the risk management regime for banks, the Japanese and Asian perspective to the financial crisis, and a new conclusion that highlights significant post-crisis risk management issues.
By Ásgeir Jónsson
The Icelandic financial crisis was very similar to the Asian crisis of 1998, or at least the part concerning the currency crisis. On both occasions you had countries that were initially favoured by international investors and received very large sums of foreign investment, which to a large extent was short-term carry trade position. [...]
by Nataliya Mylenko
According to a joint CGAP and World Bank report Financial Access 2009, 2.7 billion people in emerging markets do not use financial services from regulated financial institutions. The microfinance industry has already demonstrated that it is possible to serve this market segment in a sustainable and profitable matter.
by Martin Rogers
The financial crisis has forced the industry to grow up, but only real communication between banks and regulators will translate this maturity into workable solutions to structural problems.
by James Kwak
Wall Street critics often say that compensation should be in long-term restricted stock so that managers and employees do not have the incentive to take excessive risk. This myth has been exploded.
Influential figures in the financial services industry have different takes on whether banks should be big.
Diana Farrell, deputy director of the National Economic Council in the Obama Administration, made a statement about whether the largest US banks are too big and should be broken up that contains three remarkable points.
When five banks failed stress tests, the new central bank governor stepped in and fired the CEOs of all five banks, at the same time recapitalising them with $2.4 billion and effectively taking control of the institutions. The country: Nigeria. The time: now.
Gordon Brown has publicly supported a “half now, half later” bonus policy, similar to UBS’ “held in escrow” concept. I don’t see this as any kind of a solution, it is more of a perverse magnifier of the problem, for the simple reason that if a greedy and morally vacant banker wanted to achieve a pre-crisis level of bonus payout that person would take double the risks taken before the crisis, making booms shorter and busts longer.
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