In yesterday’s New York Times, Joe Nocera incisively attacked the persistent falsehood that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were “ground zero” for the financial crisis. In “An Inconvenient Truth,” Nocera correctly observed that: “The reality is that Fannie and Freddie followed the private sector off the cliff instead of the other way around.” In an…
On Wednesday, October 3, the day after the midterm elections, I spoke with Nancy Marshall Genzer of Marketplace Radio. Nancy asked me what impact the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives might have on the financial reform process. Given that only two short quotes of mine appear in the final broadcast, I am…
Let’s face it. Very few people have a clue how much money gets deducted from their mutual funds and then used to pay sales, marketing and service expenses. These ongoing, “hidden” deductions are above and beyond management fees that also reduce investors’ returns. And these fees can be in excess of the out-of-pocket, front-end sales…
An earlier post referred to the past prestige of the SEC as an example of the kind of regulator that could reduce the incidence of industry capture through its prestige and strong leadership. The SEC has been in the news this week as the Congressional conference committee works through the financial reform package, and yesterday…
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