For you economics geeks, how about a rap duel between John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek? In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference … Read more »
Blue Collar or White Collar
Undercover agents, wire taps and search warrants. For a criminal case it sounds like your typical organized crime investigation. You would expect the indictment to have charges for drug dealing, racketeering, murder or something similar. But last week we heard that these were the techniques used to catch the 22 people indicted for violations of … Read more »
FINRA Issues Guidance on Social Networking Sites
Securities firms and brokers have been looking for guidance on how they can use social networking sites. Actually most industries have been trying to figure out what they can and cannot do with these sites. The difference is that the FINRA limitations on communicating with the public make it very difficult to use the sites … Read more »
Global Ethics Summit Update
Dow Jones and Ethisphere Institute are teaming up to present the 2010 Global Ethics Summit on February 23-24, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt New York City. I will be attending, thanks to an offer from the event’s organizers. If you are interested in attending I can offer you a 15% discount on regular conference fees, … Read more »
But Everyone Else is Doing it
In my hasty post on last week’s FCPA sting operation my focus was on the aggressive use of an undercover operation to catch violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That was big news. It’s the first time that’s happened. The indictments did not disclose the companies involved. It’s now clear that this sting operation … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for January 22
Some interesting stories from the past week: Investor Relations Website Best Practices from the Q4 Blog On January 14, Catherine Crofton, Q4’s VP Sales & Marketing hosted an IR Website Best Practices webinar. Her presentation focused on how to build investor confidence through effective online communications. The presentation includes a lot of great examples of … Read more »
Obama Wants More Restrictions on Banks
President Barack Obama proposed new rules designed to restrict the size and activities of the U.S.’s biggest banks. The text of his proposal has not been released yet. All we have is the video, embedded below. The White House wants commercial banks that take deposits from customers to be barred from proprietary trading, owning hedge … Read more »
The Drunkard’s Walk, The Butterfly Effect and The Black Swan
The “drunkard’s walk” refers to the Brownian motion, the seemingly random movement of particles suspended in a fluid. The original thought was that you might be able to calculate the movement by measuring and calculating the interaction. It proved impossible. There are too many factors and too many interactions. Small changes in a system can … Read more »
Social Networking Compliance
Think Before You Tweet! What are the challenges for broker/dealers and investment advisers trying to use social networking sites? Complinet hosted a webinar on this topic with Clifford Kirsch from Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and Debbie Corej, Vice President, Compliance – Insurance Division, Prudential. Clifford started the discussion by pointing out the need to … Read more »
DOJ Nets 22 in FCPA Sting
“The largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of DOJ’s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” The Department of Justice has gotten serious about the FCPA. “This ongoing investigation is the first large-scale use of undercover law enforcement techniques to uncover FCPA violations and the largest action ever undertaken by the … Read more »