Goldman Sachs and the Tourre de Toxic—Stage 2

Bank Says Losses Prove No Ill Intent On Monday I posted questions about Goldman Sachs and the CDO that is now a household name: Abacus 2007-AC1. Specifically, I asked: Why did Goldman lose $75 million on this trade, when its negative bets on the housing sector yielded...

Goldman Sachs and the Tourre de Toxic

Who hasn’t seen the news? The SEC accused Goldman Sachs of fraud, alleging it misrepresented an Abacus CDO. Banks lost $1 billion on the trade. And John Paulson, one of the gods of Greenwich, pocketed that $1 billion through his fund. Here’s what I...

The Big Short by Michael Lewis is a Must-Read

I just watched the 60 Minutes segment on Michael Lewis and his new book, “The Big Short.” He had some terrific sound bites including my favorite about AIG: “…they didn’t know the mistake they were making.” Here’s one reason...

Wealth Management: How Can We Trust Anyone When…

On Thursday, March 18, I’m speaking in Amsterdam at a conference hosted by NRC Focus. The topic is “trust,” and here’s what the magazine writes: Trust is essential for markets to function properly. In a ‘high trust society’ like the...

Wealth Management’s Dirty Harry

In case you missed Matt Lauer’s interview with Harry Markopolis, here it is. Markopolis is the money manager from Boston who met with SEC four times and tried to expose Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. He said some terrific things during the interview and some that...