Sunday, December 12, 2010

Fantastic "House Advantage" Series from the NYT

Articles in the House Advantage series from The New York Times examine the ways that Wall Street banks can, and often do, gain advantages over their customers. Today’s giant banks not only create and sell investment products, but also bet on those products, and sometimes against them, putting their interests at odds with some of their customers’. The banks and their lobbyists also help fashion financial rules and regulations. And banks’ traders know what their customers are buying and selling, giving them a valuable edge.

Advantage: The Bankers Club — Helping to Write the Rules that Run the Market

A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trade in Derivatives
In theory, clearinghouses exist to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market. In practice, they also defend big banks’ dominance.
December 12, 2010

Advantage: Financial — Getting Paid on the Upside, but Not Losing on the Downside

Banks Shared Clients’ Profits, but Not Losses
Banks like JPMorgan Chase offer to help big investors like pension funds earn a little extra. When it works, both win. When it doesn’t, only the client loses.
October 18, 2010

Advantage: Product Design — Designing Products Then Betting Against Them

Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won
Investigators are trying to determine whether banks like Goldman Sachs intentionally sold their clients especially risky mortgage-linked assets.
December 24, 2009

Advantage: Price Setting — Controlling the Marks on Investments, With Self-Interest in Mind

Testy Conflict With Goldman Helped Push A.I.G. to Edge
The bank’s demands for billions of dollars from the insurer bled it of cash, which the government later provided.
February 7, 2010

Advantage: Friendly Regulators — Watching Out for the Banks

In U.S. Bailout of A.I.G., Forgiveness for Big Banks
Federal regulators ignored recommendations to force banks that did business with A.I.G. to accept losses.
June 30, 2010

Advantage: Ratings Game — How Debt Watchdogs May Have Been Compromised

Rating Agencies Shared Data, and Wall St. Seized Advantage
Trying to be transparent, credit rating agencies made their computer models public, and banks used that knowledge to shape some of the investments involved in the financial crisis.
April 24, 2010

Advantage: Information — Inside Insights Help Protect Banks' Interests, but Leave Clients Behind

Clients Worried About Goldman’s Dueling Goals
The conflicts inherent in having a trading arm have created a wariness toward Goldman Sachs.

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