By Paul Hodgson – Chief Research Analyst An edited version of this op-ed appeared on Bloomberg View on October 3, 2012 and this version appeared today on my blog on Forbes.com It was announced in the FT today that the Financial Services Authority expects banks to reduce or clawback bonuses in British banks and non-U.K. [...]
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It is time for real bank clawbacks
November 15, 2012 in CEO Pay, Daily Viewpoint, Financial Crisis, Scandals
“Shaping the Future” with the Council of Institutional Investors
April 2, 2012 in Boards, Corporate Governance, Disclosure, Environmental Issues, Financial Crisis, Shareholder Activism
The Washington D.C. spring meeting of the Council of Institutional Investors missed the cherry blossoms this year — they were unseasonably early this year and bloomed mid-March. But it did not miss much else, with a full, illuminating, sometimes galvanizing series of presentations and meetings. I was honored to be invited to speak to a [...]
Too big to fail?
March 15, 2012 in Financial Crisis
By Ric Marshall – Chief Analyst and Damion Rallis – Ratings Analyst The Federal Reserve released results of their latest stress tests on Tuesday of the country's 19 largest financial firms. The stress tests examine whether or not these firms have enough capital to withstand a simulated recession, in which banks would be hit with [...]
OWS Protesters Target Big Bank CEOs, Security Perks Put to Use
November 4, 2011 in CEO Pay, Executive Pay, Executive Pay: Banks, Financial Crisis
By Greg Ruel, Research Associate JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO James Dimon received $17k in security costs in 2010. The security figure represented a diminutive portion of his nearly $600k in perks for the year, though he could be looking to beef up security soon after being approached by Occupy Seattle protesters Wednesday afternoon. According [...]
Interview: J.C. Chandor of “Margin Call”
October 27, 2011 in Financial Crisis, Scandals
Even the movies seem to be supporting Occupy Wall Street this fall. The dystopian sci-fi film, "In Time" has a pair of heroes who are part Bonnie and Clyde and part Robin Hood and Maid Marian as they rob from the rich to give to the poor. And writer-director J.C. Chandor, whose father worked at [...]
Interview: Alfred Rappaport of Saving Capitalism from Short-Termism
September 27, 2011 in CEO Pay, Corporate Governance, Disclosure, Financial Crisis
Alfred Rappaport's important new book, Saving Capitalism From Short-Termism: How to Build Long-Term Value and Take Back Our Financial Future, has a penetrating diagnosis of the disruptive forces in our markets and powerful prescriptions for addressing them. He generously took time to answer my questions. How does the current structure of incentive compensation at the [...]
Dodd-Frank v. The 10 Commandments
July 26, 2011 in Financial Crisis
By Paul Hodgson – Chief Communications Officer In an article in this week’s Agenda about the anniversary of Dodd-Frank, Josh Martin quotes some of what we discussed here: These rules won’t prevent a future economic meltdown, says Paul Hodgson, chief communications officer at Governance Metrics International. “Fifty years from now, people won’t remember what Dodd-Frank [...]
Phil Angelides Refutes Attempt to Rewrite History
June 30, 2011 in Financial Crisis
Phil Angelides, who chaired the bi-partisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, has an excellent op-ed in today's Washington Post about "Wall Street's Fact-Free Revisionism" on the financial meltdown. Like the Sarah Palin fans who tried to revise the Wikipedia entry on Paul Revere to conform to her muddled summary and revisionists through history who try to [...]
Oscar winner lashes out at Wall Street
February 28, 2011 in Financial Crisis
In among the constant references to performance union workforces, Charles Ferguson, the director of the Oscar-winning documentary The Inside Job sure knew how to seize an opportunity. As he clasped his little statuette, he bent down to the microphone (like, everyone had to do this at the Oscars last night, were there just a lot [...]
The Most Important Sentence in the FCIC Report
February 8, 2011 in Financial Crisis
Within the 662 pages of the report released last week by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, based on information from more than 700 witnesses and millions of pages of documents, and including two separate dissents from the Republican members, there is one sentence that encompasses all of the majority’s conclusions and refutes all of the [...]
Charles Ferguson on his Documentary About the Financial Meltdown
October 20, 2010 in Financial Crisis
The scariest — and most infuriating — movie of the year is "Inside Job," the documentary about the financial meltdown from Charles Ferguson, the director of "No End in Sight." With just two films, Ferguson, a PhD in political science who made a fortune in software, has become an extraordinarily accomplished director and journalist and [...]
The Mafia Running the Police Force
June 23, 2010 in Financial Crisis
I just read in Mother Jones that among the 14 securities industry insiders currently working for the Obama administration to help regulate Wall St (including the likes of Neal Wolin) is one Herbert Allison. Herbert Allison? Responsible for overseeing TARP? Isn’t that like asking the Mafia to run the police force? We know there’ll be [...]