The Front Page

By Bill Donnelly

This week the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association known as SIFMA released their end of year Economic Outlook Survey. The survey pools the thinking of 21 participants from top ranking firms including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, J.P. Morgan and several high profile capital markets firms. The document compared 2011 market data against their original forecast for 2011, along with predictions for 2012. ...

by Rich Troxler

On the surface, this may sound like a facetious question, asked for the sole purpose of getting a rise out of the readership, but I assure you it is not. It is a very serious question, one with many implications and no easy answer. The answer will not be found in any one party philosophy, or in any one specific act of Congress, as the answer is far more encompassing than that. No, the lunacy that is our 112th Congress has been a long time in the making and yet interestingly, finds its basis in some very simple principles of both human nature and the physical world. Let’s start with some basic physical laws and apply them to Congress. ...

By Bill Donnelly

Regulatory Reform in the Financial Services Sector continues to move at a snail’s pace. Three years after the market meltdown, Regulators and Financial Services Firms continue to struggle over the content and timing of the Dodd-Frank Act and Volker Rule.

Although banks and regulators seem to publicly agree on the need to implement reform, they seem to quietly disagree on exactly what those reforms will be and when they will be implemented. Individuals on both sides offer their opinions, but to date we have seen little in terms of results. ...