Government Accountability Office

Posts Tagged ‘Government Accountability Office’

Auction-Rate Securities UPDATE: SEC Brief May Help ARS Investors

Posted by Larry Doyle on July 26th, 2011 8:21 AM |

37 months and counting and still thousands of Americans holding untold billions of dollars in frozen auction-rate securities await the return of THEIR money.

The question of whether the injustice of all that went on in the ARS scandal might ever truly see the light of day seems to have long since been dismissed. Regrettably that fact would seem to mitigate a full understanding of the ARS mess and minimize the lessons that may otherwise have been learned by future generations. What a shame!!

Despite these realities, the fight goes on supported by the billions of reasons that may appear to be frozen in those outstanding ARS but are very much alive.

I have always maintained that the ARS market was the greatest scam ever perpetrated on Wall Street. What is new on the ARS front? (more…)

Tags: ARS, Auction Rate Securities scandal, Bill Halldin of Merrill Lynch and Company, caveat emptor, GAO, Government Accountability Office, jacob S. Frenkel of Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy and Ecker, James Cox of Duke University, Jonathan Levine of Girard Gibbs, Kevin Callahan, liquidity of auction rate securities, Morgan Keegan ARS decision, MSRB, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, propping auction rate securities auctions, Robert Khuzami, SEC Brief in ARS, SEC Brief in Auction-Rate Case may Help Investors Suing Banks, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro, SEC vs Merrill Lynch in ARS, secondary trading of ARS, secondary trading of auction rate securities, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, SIFMA, what is new on the ars front, what is new with ars, William Sullivan of Paul Hastings Janofsky and Walker in Los Angeles
Posted in ARPS, ARS, Auction Rate Securities scandal, General | 10 Comments »

Are Student Loans an Impending Bubble? Is Higher Education a Scam?

Posted by Larry Doyle on April 26th, 2011 9:00 AM |

What did we experience in the sub-prime housing debacle?

1. Shoddy underwriting standards for borrowers.
2. A massively flawed system promoted and perpetuated by the Wall Street securitization business.
3. Borrowers overleveraged leading to skyrocketing rates of foreclosures and defaults.
4. A mentality that housing finance could promote a real social benefit and a profitable enterprise.
5. A government backstop and ultimate bailout for investors.
6. An ultimate fiasco for our society as a whole.

Have we learned our lessons from the sub-prime housing nightmare? Could we possibly be going down the same path in another segment of our economy? Yesterday a reader inquired if I had addressed the potential impending fiasco in student loans. This morning I discussed the cost of higher education with my better half. Will our economy be able to generate both the jobs and income levels for students to manage their increasing levels of indebtedness? (more…)

Tags: amount of outstanding student loans s, are student loans a bubble, Bad Education, Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, because they can, college arms race, college education, college finances, comparisons to sub-prime lending, Department of Education, Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act, eWallstreeter, Federal Family Education Loan Program, FFELP, financing of higher education, for profit education enterprises, GAO, Government Accountability Office, growth in tuitions, higher education, how colleges work, How the University Works, how to finance a college education, husband of Diane Feinstein, is higher education a scam, Kaplan Higher Education, Marc Bousquet, n +1, Pell Grant money, private loans to college students, Project on Student Debt, recruiting students, Richard C. Blum of University of California, Sallie Mae, Sense on Cents, SLABS, SLMA, student borrowing, student indebtedness, student lending, student loans, student loans comparison to sub-prime mortgages net loan, students declaring bankruptcy, sub-prime lending in student loans, university arms race, University of Phoenix, what are SLABS, what happens when students default on student loans, why have education costs risen so high, why is education so expensive, will education expenses continue to increase
Posted in General | 22 Comments »

“The Lack of Transparency and Accountability at FINRA Is Absurd”

Posted by Larry Doyle on December 10th, 2010 6:46 AM |

I detest those people and organizations paying mere lip service to issues needing real transparency and accountability.

I love having the voice provided by Sense on Cents so I can highlight a wide array of these issues and so people can more effectively navigate the economic landscape. I also love being able to ask the hard questions and call out those whom I think are not serving the public interest.

What else do I love? I love when a voice far stronger than my own echoes my thoughts, shares my opinion, and blasts away in pursuit of real truth, transparency, and integrity along our economic landscape.

With only a few exceptions, the media as a whole has shown itself unwilling to truly take the gloves off and go after the aforementioned ‘lip serving’ individuals and institutions. Independent watchdogs in pursuit of good government are far more aggressive.

On this note and against this backdrop, I have to admit my adrenaline picked up yesterday. How so? Let’s navigate as I was informed of the following: (more…)

Tags: Amerivet Securities, Darrel Issa, Dodd-Frank financial reform, FINRA Accountability and transparency, FINRA Board of Governors, FINRA Madoff family, FINRA Madoff relationship, FINRA's board, GAO, Government Accountability Office, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House Financial Services Committee, how is Wall Street regulated, issues inside FINRA, Larry Doyle, Mary Schapiro, POGO, POGO letter to FINRA, project on Government Oversight, regulation of Wall Street, Richard Ketchum, SEC, Senate Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Sense on Cents, Spencer Bachus, Wall Street collapse, what is Finra, who is Danielle Brian, who is on FINRA's board, who is POGO ?, who regulates Wall Street, will FINRA oversee hedge funds and investment advisers
Posted in FINRA, General | 7 Comments »

Steady Decline Through 2060?

Posted by Larry Doyle on June 28th, 2010 1:12 PM |

What type of legacy are we leaving our kids? Will we leave them so burdened with overwhelming debts and deficits so as to strangle and choke off real opportunities? While Uncle Sam is able to play charades in an ever increasing and dramatic fashion, Sam’s smaller brethren at the state and local levels do not have those capabilities.

On that note, let’s look westward. I wrote in May 2009, “As California’s Economy Goes, So Goes the Country.” Along the same line, today we read from Bloomberg, States of Crisis for 46 Governments Facing Greek-Style Deficits: