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June 2009
- Geithner, Summers Outline New Regulatory System
  
  Washington Post | Jun 15, 09 8:33 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The current financial regulatory system “is riddled with gaps, weaknesses, and jurisdictional overlaps,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Obama economic guru Larry Summers write in today’s Washington Post . They outline, in broad strokes, their plan to fix it: Capital and liquidity requirements will be raised across the board. “Too-big-to-fail” firms will be subject to supervision from the Federal Reserve and a council of regulators. More »
May 2009
- Feds Seize Florida Bank in $4.9B Bust
  
  Wall Street Journal | May 22, 09 5:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Florida's BankUnited went bust yesterday as the FDIC seized the critically undercapitalized bank and sold it off to a private-equity team including Blackstone, reports the Wall Street Journal . BankUnited's troubles stemmed from overeager moves in the housing market. It specialized in loans for foreigners wanting to buy Florida property. After Indymac, BankUnited is the largest bank failure since the start of the financial crisis. The already weakened FDIC reckons the bust will cost it $4.9 billion. More »
- NFL's Model Is Better Bet Than Big Biz
  
  Financial Times (UK) | May 12, 09 11:10 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The business world’s dependence on its own form of gambling—the “expectations,” or stock market—helped fuel the current financial crisis and the dot-com crash, writes Roger Martin in the F inancial Times . “Neither would have happened if our business and capital markets theories had been as robust as those used to govern the NFL.” The league, soundly, instead rewards players and coaches on their “real market” performance—wins, touchdowns, yards. More »
- Private Equity Players Want In on Banking
  
  New York Times | May 6, 09 9:22 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Even in the midst of the banking crisis, numerous entities are willing to buy the big banks, the New York Times reports. Private equity groups like J.C. Flowers & Company are itching to snap up the cash-strapped behemoths, but the Fed won’t let them. It’s worried that selling banks to the notoriously risk-loving private equity crowd would invite a future crisis. More »
April 2009
- Prince Charles' Eco-Fund Whacked by Credit Crunch
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Apr 20, 09 5:29 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Prince Charles' dreams of eco-friendly urban regeneration have been shattered by the credit crisis, the Daily Telegraph reports. A major Middle Eastern investor has pulled out of a $1 billion property fund the prince planned to use to replicate the sustainable eco-village Poundbury, which he launched in Dorset. Supporters are scrambling to find new funding, but the prince's vision is expected to be scaled back considerably. More »
- Okla. Private Equity Firm Bids for Saturn Brand
  
  Los Angeles Times | Apr 16, 09 6:24 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A private equity firm is making a bid to buy General Motors' Saturn brand, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Oklahoma company, Black Oak Partners—which says it has gone public in the hopes of stopping dealers from abandoning the brand—is the first known suitor for any of the brands GM is seeking to offload, which also include Hummer and Saab. The auto maker says it is weighing "a handful" of offers. More »
March 2009
- Geithner Pitches Overhaul of Financial Oversight
  
  Washington Post | Mar 26, 09 12:19 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Tim Geithner today proposed a major expansion of federal regulatory powers, reports the Washington Post . In testimony before Congress, the Treasury chief called for hedge funds, derivatives markets, private equity firms, and major insurers like AIG to be brought under strict federal supervision for the first time. His plan, which requires congressional approval, would reverse decades of deregulation. More »
- Treasury Unveils $1T Plan to Clean Up Toxic Assets
  
  Wall Street Journal | Mar 23, 09 8:09 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Treasury unveiled its three-part Public-Private Investment Program today, reports the Wall Street Journal . Under the program, up to $100 billion in TARP funds will be partnered with private investments to buy troubled assets. The Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC will work with hedge funds and private equity to try to restart the market, and taxpayers will gain if investments turn profitable. More »
- Feds Look for Privately Funded $1T Bailout
  
  New York Times | Mar 23, 09 5:37 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Treasury today unveils its three-part public-private plan to purchase $1 trillion in troubled assets, offering lucrative subsidies to private investors to encourage them to participate. The Obama administration spent the weekend wooing hesitant private investors—hedge funds, private equity firms, and sovereign wealth funds—who fear future regulation or AIG-like public scrutiny. "The deal is good, but it’s not worth it if I’m buying myself into a retroactive tax or a Congressional hearing," one CEO told the New York Times . More »
- Hedges, Private Equity Funds to Invest in Bailout
  
  Washington Post | Mar 6, 09 7:11 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - With its highly touted TALF program to spur consumer lending, the government is undertaking a $1 trillion effort that hinges on the participation of some unpopular outfits: hedge funds and private equity firms. As the Washington Post reports, the Fed and Treasury's "public-private partnership" relies on investment from the only people who still have cash on hand—and could make them considerable profits without much risk. More »
January 2009
- Pfizer Deal's $22.5B in Loans Hasn't Unlocked Credit
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jan 27, 09 9:11 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Think Pfizer’s $68 billion deal to buy Wyeth, financed in part with $22.5 billion in loans, means credit markets have thawed? Think again, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pfizer’s lenders—including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman, and Citigroup—are charging high interest (7%-9%, with loans due in a year) and can walk if Pfizer’s credit rating drops below investment-grade. More »
- New York 'Mini-Madoff' Busted
  
  Reuters | Jan 27, 09 6:09 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - New York police have busted a financier accused of running a Ponzi scheme, Reuters reports. Nick Cosmo—sentenced to 21 months on swindling charges in 1999—may have bilked investors of up to $380 million through his firm Agape World, which claimed to make high-interest bridge loans, according to authorities. Police had to escort Cosmo from his Long Island office last week to protect him from a mob of violent investors. More »
- SEC Charges 'Mini-Madoff' With Fraud
  
  Reuters | Jan 22, 09 9:55 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - A Florida hedge fund manager who's been on the run for more than a week will find federal fraud charges waiting for him if and when he resurfaces, Reuters reports. Arthur Nadel transferred more than $1 million of clients' money into secret accounts before disappearing, the SEC alleges in a complaint filed yesterday, and the hedge funds he controlled, which supposedly totaled $300 million, are worth just $500,000. More »
- Florida 'Mini-Madoff' Missing With $350M
  
  Sarasota Herald-Tribune | Jan 17, 09 7:48 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - A Florida hedge fund manager is missing along with hundreds of millions of dollars of his clients' money, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. Art Nadel, 75, was reported missing Wednesday after his wife found a suicide note. Stunned investors have been told that Nadel's funds, thought to have totaled $350 million, are now nearly empty. More »
- Madoff Brother Eyed for Not Reporting Scam
  
  New York Times | Jan 10, 09 6:39 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Bernard Madoff's brother learned that the Madoff fund was a huge scam the evening before the fraudster confessed to his sons, but he failed to inform authorities, insiders tell the New York Times . Peter Madoff, who worked closely with his older brother for decades, has not been charged with any crime, but experts say he was obligated to tell regulators as soon as he was informed, as the sons did. Also among Bernard Madoff's victims, the New York Post reports: his own sister. More »
- Wreck of IndyMac Sold for $13.9B
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jan 3, 09 8:41 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - A team of high-profile investors has bought the remains of failed bank IndyMac from the FDIC for $13.9 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports. The investors, including George Soros and computer tycoon Michael Dell, have agreed to share the losses from IndyMac's portfolio of troubled mortgages in a deal expected to cost the FDIC around $9 billion. More »
- Private Equity Giants See Big Payday—If They Don't Go Bust
  
  Vanity Fair | Jan 2, 09 12:31 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - None of the major players in the "shadow banking" world of private equity—the likes of Blackstone, Carlyle, and KKR—has yet gone bust, and the guessing game of which one will be first is well under way, reports Newser founder Michael Wolff in Vanity Fair . Don't hold your breath. The industry may indeed be "looking at imminent catastrophe and ruination," notes Wolff, but given the greater opportunities for bluffing in private equity, these firms just might be ideally suited to profit from everyone else's ruin. More »
December 2008
- Fund Warned Clients Madoff 'Could Abscond With Assets'
  
  Financial Times (UK) | Dec 23, 08 8:47 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - One of the firms hardest hit by the $50 billion Bernard Madoff fraud warned investors in its prospectus that investing with Madoff was risky, saying explicitly that the brokerage “could abscond with those assets,” the Financial Times reports. Kingate Global told investors that they would not check the accuracy of the statements Madoff provided, and that “information supplied by the investment adviser may be inaccurate or even fraudulent.” Despite the disclaimer, Kingate clients poured $2.75 billion into the fund. More »
- As Losses Mount, Madoff Son Goes Shopping
  
  New York Post | Dec 22, 08 12:00 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Watching investors lose their shirts on Bernard Madoff’s investments didn’t deter his son and daughter-in-law from a holiday shopping spree yesterday, the New York Post reports. Andrew Madoff, who worked for Dad’s failed financial firm, and wife Deborah power-shopped SoHo, snapping up items from J.Crew, Kidrobot, Longchamp, and American Eagle. The two have been separated for a year, the Post adds, and Deborah served him divorce papers the same day his dad was arrested. More »
- Outsider Madoff Cultivated Steady Image
  
  Wall Street Journal | Dec 20, 08 8:33 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Bernard Madoff rose to fame and fortune as one of America's top financial insiders but he never stopped acting like an outsider, associates tell the Wall Street Journal . Despite his reputation as outgoing "Uncle Bernie," the disgraced financier was often ill at ease socially and could be brusque with clients—especially when they asked too many questions. More »