In no way definitive (nor meant to be), but fascinating look at an under-developed topic: how SEC employees’ trades fare and why it might be the case that their portfolios preempt bad news better than peers’. Worth remembering that while capitalist firms are imperfect and prone to cheating, so are regulatory agencies…
finance
The dogecoin founder on the cryptocurrency bubble
LinkThe dogecoin founder on the cryptocurrency bubble
Really great profile by Kevin Roose of Jackson Palmer, the founder of Dogecoin. Broad points here about the future of cryptocurrency and why it is almost certainly in a bubble.
Smart money
LinkNational Affairs roundup of recent pieces on investing and biases.
Risk targeting and the Volcker Rule
LinkRisk targeting and the Volcker Rule
via Matt Levine, who has insightful commentary as always
Imagine an economy without Wall Street
LinkCyber bonds
LinkThe sell-outs and the self-righteous
LinkThe sell-outs and the self-righteous
I don’t agree with all of this article, but there are some really good bits on the constant criticism directed towards wannabe bankers and consultants.
Goldman Sachs investments test the Volcker Rule
LinkGoldman Sachs investments test the Volcker Rule
Nathaniel Popper:
Yet while its competitors have been abandoning the business of making big bets with their own money, frequently citing the risks involved, Goldman has been quietly coming up with several new ways to put its own money to work in formats that appear to stay on the right side of Volcker.
Hackers using lingo of Wall St. breach health care companies’ email
LinkHackers using lingo of Wall St. breach health care companies’ email
A lot of cyberspace fears have been overblown. This is real.
For more than a year, a group of cybercriminals has been pilfering email correspondence from more than 100 organizations — most of them publicly traded health care or pharmaceutical companies — apparently in pursuit of information significant enough to affect global financial markets.
Bonded labour
LinkThe Economist with a short primer on performance bonds, a new incentive structure for investment bankers, and how EU regulation might affect it.
The idea, promoted by Bill Dudley, the head of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, is roughly equivalent to demanding that senior bankers deposit their annual bonuses in the bank’s vaults for ten years. The delay is to make sure that the deals struck by the employees concerned do not eventually sour; if they do, the money would be used to help absorb the associated losses.